Yemen Forces Claim 1,860 Houthis Neutralised in Offensive
Yemeni government forces said Thursday they have “neutralised” 1,860 Houthi fighters since launching a large-scale counteroffensive to retake territory held by the Iran-backed group. Army spokesman Col. Majid al-Nuzaili said forces carried out 2,103 precision targeting operations against Houthi positions on several fronts as part of an operation called Dawn of Yemen. He said hundreds of pieces of military equipment and positions were destroyed. He did not say how many of the fighters were killed and how many were wounded. The Houthis have not commented, and the figures have not been independently verified.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced the operation Sunday, saying it aims to retake all Houthi-held territory, including the capital, Sanaa. The Houthis have controlled Sanaa since 2014. Fighting in recent days has centered on areas around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a shipping route that has become more important for energy exports since the conflict between the United States and Iran restricted trade through the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday, government-aligned forces launched an operation to capture strategic territory near the strait and around the city of Mocha, which the Houthis captured in September.
The Saudi-led coalition supporting the government said Wednesday that it destroyed 82 Houthi military targets in the governorates of Saada, Hodeidah, al-Jawf and Marib. A coalition spokesperson said the targets included 11 mountain-based ballistic missile storage sites, command-and-control centers, communications systems and weapons depots. The coalition said the strikes followed Houthi attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Abha International Airport.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said the attacks on the two airports killed three people. It said one person was killed and eight wounded at King Khalid International Airport, and two were killed and 28 wounded at facilities at Abha airport. The Houthis had claimed attacks on both airports.
Yemen has been in conflict since the Houthis seized Sanaa and several provinces in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government. The United Nations says more than 200,000 people have been displaced as fighting has escalated.
Information for this report came from Al Jazeera, Reuters and Anadolu Agency, as published by BGNES, along with statements from Yemen’s armed forces, the Saudi-led coalition and Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation.