AL-MUKALLA: Heavy fighting broke out between Yemeni government forces and the Houthis outside the southern city of Taiz on Monday night, the latest in a string of attempts by the Iran-backed militia to make gains on the ground, as the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council vowed to continue “painful strikes” against the Houthis.
The Houthis heavily shelled military positions held by Yemeni government forces on the northern, northeastern and eastern outskirts of Taiz in an attempt to pave the way for ground forces to advance, Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a Yemeni military officer in Taiz, told Arab News.
The shelling sparked heavy fighting as government forces returned fire and engaged Houthi fighters on the ground.
“The fighting was very heavy, and our national army heroes crushed the Houthis and inflicted heavy losses on them,” Al-Baher said.
He said a number of Houthis were killed or wounded in the fighting and that the group failed to make any territorial gains.
For more than a decade, the Yemeni government has controlled the densely populated city of Taiz, while the Houthis hold areas on its outskirts and some key routes around the city.
The militia has repeatedly tried and failed to seize the city despite years of shelling, ground attacks and siege.
The Houthi siege has severely restricted the movement of people and goods to and from Taiz, forcing residents to use dangerous and steep mountain roads to enter and leave the city.
Al-Baher said government troops had completed military preparations for any potential large-scale operation against the Houthis.
“The heroes of the national army have completed their military preparations and are ready to take the initiative and begin the offensive. They are only waiting for orders from the leadership,” he said.
Hostilities across Yemen’s major front lines had remained largely subdued since a UN-brokered truce came into effect in April 2022, despite sporadic fighting and shelling between government forces and the Houthis.
But fears of a return to all-out war have grown since early this month, when at least 17 Yemeni government personnel were killed and others wounded in Houthi drone and missile attacks on military sites in Hadramout and Marib.
The Houthis have also carried out waves of attacks on government-held areas, particularly the Red Sea city of Mocha, killing at least seven people and damaging its strategic seaport.
The escalation in Taiz came as Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, vowed that government forces would continue to inflict “painful strikes” on Houthi command-and-control centers, and gatherings across the battlefields.
According to the official SABA news agency, Al-Alimi, during a meeting with a German Defense Ministry official in Riyadh on Monday, called for a more aggressive approach toward Iran and its proxies by cutting off their financial resources and curbing weapons smuggling, while strengthening the capabilities of countries, including Yemen, where Iranian-backed militias operate.
Al-Alimi also said the deployment of international forces in waters off Yemen to protect shipping from Houthi attacks would not succeed without training and equipping Yemen’s coast guard to secure the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab and the country’s seaports.
“The Yemeni people cannot accept a model in which there are official state institutions, and parallel to them is an armed group that keeps weapons and decides unilaterally when to fight and when to make peace, in addition to its association with a cross-border sabotage project,” SABA quoted Al-Alimi as telling the German official, referring to the Houthis and their ties to Iran.
