Sana’a: Forces loyal to Yemen’s legitimate government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi fought their way deep into the central city of Taiz on Sunday, local officials said, largely pushing Al Houthi rebels from the country’s third largest city.
The pro-government forces seized a mountaintop citadel and an intelligence headquarters in battles with Al Houthis and deserting
Yemeni army units, who control two military bases in the city.
Tank battles and air strikes have rocked Taiz since April, when the pro-government forces, backed by warplanes from an international coalition intervened against Al Houthi rebels.
The combat has left much of the city in ruins and its residents pinned down inside their homes.
A civil war in Yemen erupted in late March when the Iran-backed Al Houthi forces, who had seized the capital Sana’a last September, drove southwards, forcing the government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia.
The UAE is part of the international force that is intervening in Yemen — a force that has the backing of the United Nations Security Council.
More than 4,300 people have died in the conflict as hunger, disease and suffering have spread in the impoverished country, destabilised by Al Houthi rebels who overthrew the legitimate government of President Hadi.
Fighting had been stalemated for almost four months but the legitimate Yemeni forces have gained the upper hand with training and weapons deliveries by the international coalition.
In recent weeks, Yemeni forces have seized several southern provinces in an advance northward toward Sana’a.
Residents in the capital reported the first air strikes on the city for about a month on Sunday, with international coalition jets targeting the main military airport and a weapons depot.
The United Nations’ envoy to Yemen, Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, has been shuttling between the warring sides, including Al Houthis’ representatives in Oman, in an attempt to secure Al Houthi withdrawals from cities and spare Yemen’s ancient capital from a devastating final battle.
“There is great progress in the ongoing negotiations in Muscat,” a Yemeni politician told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “Al Houthis have agreed to the plan of the international envoy and the response of the Yemeni government is expected tomorrow.”
while 80 percent of Yemen’s 21 million people need aid and protection.
The five provinces so far retaken by pro-government troops, along with Mahra and Hadramawt, which the militants never entered, comprise what was formerly known as the independent South Yemen.
It was its own state between the end of British colonial rule in 1967 and its union with the north in 1990.
A secession attempt four years later sparked a brief civil war that ended with northern forces occupying the region.
