JEDDAH: A convoy carrying relief goods from the Kingdom has reached the besieged province of Taiz in Yemen on Tuesday.
The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid (KSRelief) sent the relief convoy to the affected people in Al-Shaqab area in Sabr Al-Moadm, Taiz, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
KSRelief is distributing the goods through the Coalition of Humanitarian Relief - Taiz in collaboration with youths in the province.
Amin Al-Haidari, executive director of the coalition, said the aid includes food, medicines and medical supplies.
Saudi Arabia had been acknowledged by the United Nations as the biggest source of relief aid medicines to Yemen. KSRelief had stepped up its relief activities since a Saudi-led Coalition of Muslim countries stepped into Yemen to help restore the UN-recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in April 2015 after rampaging Iran-backed Houthi militias, in cahoots with armed groups loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized wide swathes of territory including the capital Sanaa.
Fighting escalated this month after peace talks brokered by the United Nations and Kuwaiti failed.
On Monday, deadly clashes raged between the pro-Iran rebels and Yemeni government forces battling to secure an entrance to the besieged city of Taiz, military sources said.
Yemeni troops backed by Saudi-led coalition forces launched an offensive last week to break the rebel siege on Yemen’s flashpoint third city, in the country’s southwest.
The heaviest fighting Monday was near its western entrance where air strikes by the Arab coalition and ground battles left 11 dead among Houthi rebels and their allies, military sources said.
An air raid killed two more rebels at the northern entrance to Taiz, which has been encircled for more than year, the sources said.
AFP could not confirm the toll from independent sources and the Iran-backed rebels rarely acknowledge their losses.
Southern provinces are held by loyalist forces, while the rebels control the capital Sanaa, as well as the north and much of western Yemen.
Tens of thousands of civilians are said to be caught in the fierce and protracted battle for Taiz.
Mines planted by the rebels around the city are so far hampering the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid to Taiz, according to military sources.
But dozens of residents have been using the sole open road, even before demining operations have been completed, to reach villages along the western outskirts, the sources added.
(Additional input by Agence France Presse)
