-
The military funerals for the 11 slain men were held on Saturday in Sanaa
-
Yemen’s Defense Ministry said the Houthis had escalated their attacks on troops in four provinces, leaving many dead on both sides
The Houthi militia has suffered a heavy setback on the battlefield when it lost 11 of its fighters, including a top commander in Yemen. The military funerals for the militants of the Iran-backed force were held on Saturday in Sanaa.
Fighters carried the coffins of Brig. Hamer Yahiya Yahiya Al-Fakih, military chief of staff of the capital’s Hamdan district, and 10 others who died in clashes with troops or in Arab coalition airstrikes.
Al-Fakih and other Houthi leaders were killed in key contested areas in Marib, where the Houthis have mounted an offensive to capture the oil-rich city. A local military source told Arab News on Saturday that at least two other senior Houthi leaders had been killed in fighting in Marib in the past 48 hours.
Yemen’s Defense Ministry said the Houthis had escalated their attacks on troops in four provinces, with dozens of combatants dying on both sides.
Troops and allied tribesmen on Saturday pushed back a Houthi assault in the Al-Mashjah area, west of Marib, with the rebels forced into retreating. Many Houthis were killed or wounded and at least seven military vehicles were destroyed in the battle that lasted for several hours, the ministry said.
Other clashes broke out in Al-Kasara, west of Marib, where the Houthis failed to make gains despite their attacks, a military source said.
“We pushed back all of the militia’s waves and they could not move an inch on the ground,” the source told Arab News.
The army also shot down an explosives-rigged drone over a residential area north of Marib city.
In neighboring Al-Bayda, where the Houthis have made major advances in the past couple of weeks, fighting broke out in the Al-Zaher and Al-Souma districts as government troops sought to recapture areas from the group.
Fueled by their gains in Al-Bayda, the Houthis launched new attacks on troops in the southern provinces of Lahj and Shabwa for the first time in years.
Local military sources said a soldier from the Southern Transitional Council was killed in fighting with the Houthis between Al-Bayda and Lahj.