Al Mukalla: Government forces have killed hundreds of Al Houthis and arrested dozens of them last month during heavy clashes in the province of Marib, promoting the Red Crescent to send an appeal for help to cope with an increasing number of abandoned decomposing bodies.
Ali Al Ghoulais, an information secretary to the governor of Marib, told Gulf News on Saturday that based on their intelligence information 437 Al Houthis have been killed and 156 either injured or killed in September in many districts in Marib.
“27 tanks and 145 armed vehicles or canons were destroyed by the national army and coalition warplanes,” Al Ghoulais said.
Anti-Al Houthis fighters took the offensive in fighting against the militants early last month when the Saudi-led coalition dispatched hundreds of highly trained Yemeni and Gulf soldiers equipped with modern heavy equipment.
Al Houthis have rarely disclosed the number of deaths, but a local Red Crescent official told Gulf News that his office has received calls from residents about dozens of bodies of dead Al Houthis fighter scattered in former battlegrounds in the province which are now under control of government forces.
Al Ghoulais said that Al Houthis have been driven from almost all the districts of Marib province.
“The fighting is raging in only less 50 per cent of Serwah district. The national army forces have been deployed in the liberated area.”
Al Houthis official media deny any advance by coalition forces and pro-government army in the province, claiming that their fighters have inflicted heavy loses on their opponents.
Also in the same province, the head of the provincial office of Yemen Red Crescent in Marib said on Saturday that the office’s volunteers retrieved on Thursday bodies of seven Al Houthi militants and are expanding their mission to other areas.
“We have received dozens of calls from local people informing us about bodies of dead fighters. We are planning to move to these areas but after making sure that they are safe from landmines,” Hussain Al Shabwani told Gulf News by telephone.
Al Shabwani said that his men are lacking basic know-how in dealing with the increasing number of bodies.
“The office depends entirely on inexperienced local volunteers. I have send an appeal to the main office in Sana’a to send well-trained people and equipment.”
