Al Mukalla: Yemeni army officials and tribesmen battling Al Houthis in Sana’a province have said that they have seized modern arms, including thermal rockets, from retreating rebel fighters in Nehim district battlefield.
The latest arms seizures flesh out accusations that Iran is still funnelling arms shipments to the rebels despite an air and sea embargo by the Saudi-led coalition. “We have seized thermal rockets, 12 sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and medium and light machine guns,” Abdullah Al Shandaqi, a spokesperson for the resistance fighters, told Gulf News on Tuesday.
Last month, the commander of Aden-based 4th Military Region told Gulf News that his forces had found out that the Al Houthis were using Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles and advanced night vision goggles. Major General Ahmad Sayef Al Yafae explained that the rebels apparently received some of the arms from Iran and the others had been provided by the United States during the reign of the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh for counterterrorism forces.
Despite a declared ceasefire that began in April, government forces have engaged in unprecedented bloody fighting with Al Houthis in Nehim district as the rebels try to blunt the government forces’ slow advance towards the capital. Al Shandaqi said dozens of the rebel fighters were killed on Monday by government forces and the Saudi-led warplanes after failing to recapture strategic locations in Nehim district.
“The national army and resistance fighters pushed back the Al Houthi assault on Al Mejawah and Bani Faraj regions [in Nehim] and killed dozens of their fighters. The coalition’s warplanes struck Al Houthis’ military reinforcements, destroying four armoured vehicles and three heavy machine guns.”
For the first time since the beginning of war against the Al Houthis, government forces are stationed in regions in Sana’a province, almost 35km from the Al Houthi-occupied capital.
In the besieged Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, residents told Gulf News on Tuesday that fierce clashes broke out when Al Houthi fighters mounted attacks on pro-government forces positions in the eastern and northern sides of the city. The residents said that the Saudi-led coalition warplanes pounded Al Houthis tanks and military gatherings in the city, enabling government allied forces to clear some hilly areas from the rebels.
Raids
In the port city of Al Mukalla, Hadramout province, army troops raided many abandoned houses searching for Al Qaida operatives, hours after the militants claimed responsibility for twin attacks on army checkpoints on Monday that killed six soldiers and injured more than 30, including six civilians.
