Dozens killed as Yemeni forces push rebels back

Clashes between government forces and Houthi rebels left at least 26 fighters dead near the international shipping strait in the country's eastern region, authorities said on Saturday.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

14 January, 2017

Dozens were killed in the week-long government assault [Getty]

At least 26 Yemeni fighters died in fresh clashes and an airstrike as government forces advanced against Houthi rebels near a key shipping strait, medics and officials said on Saturday.

Twelve bodies of Houthi insurgents were taken to a hospital in rebel-held Hodeida early on Saturday, a medical official said, adding that the facility received 23 others wounded.

He said the casualties were from clashes on Friday night in Dhubab.

Meanwhile, an overnight airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition on a rebel assembly in Zaydiya, in Hodeida province, left another nine Houthis dead, a security official said.

The Red Sea port city of Hodeida lies some 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Dhubab and government forces have attempted to force the rebels out of the region in a week-long assault.

In Aden, five pro-government fighters were killed in overnight clashes around Dhubab and 14 others wounded, a medical official at a hospital in the southern city said.

Forces loyal to President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi and allied fighters from the Popular Resistance have entered the town of Dhubab and seized its local government headquarters.

Popular Resistance commander Abdelrahman al-Muharami said the loyalists had also recaptured large parts of al-Omeri military base in mountains overlooking the coast.

"There are still some rebel pockets" in the base, he said.

The government and its allies in the Saudi-led coalition recaptured Bab al-Mandab strait in October 2015, pushing the rebels further north.

But the rebels still control nearly all of Yemen's Red Sea coast to the north, posing what the coalition says is a threat to international shipping.

Yemen's conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and wounded nearly 40,000 since it escalated with the coalition intervention in March 2015.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher said that his administration will start transferring salaries to state employees in rebel-held areas in another bid to reassert government authority.

Public sector employees in rebel-controlled areas have struggled since Hadi moved the central bank from Sanaa to the temporary capital of Aden in June, after accusing the insurgents of running down Yemen's foreign reserves.

Dagher said government employees "across all provinces" will receive their salaries at post offices and exchange outlets, state news agency Saba reported.