Cairo: Over 50 Al Houthi militiamen were killed in clashes with Yemeni government forces near the coastal city of Hodeida, a major battleground in the war, military sources said on Monday.
The fighting took place in the Bayat Al Faqih district, south east of Hodeida in western Yemen, the sources added, according to Sky News Arabia.
Government loyalists, supported by the Saudi-led coalition, mounted a large mop-up operation in the area as they were heading towards the neighbouring town of Al Hussainia, they said.
Hodeida is strategically important because it has a harbour, which is a lifeline for millions of Yemenis, as most of the commercial imports and relief supplies enter through it to the country.
In the past weeks, the government forces, supported by the coalition air power, have stepped up attacks near rebel-controlled Hodeida after Al Houthis failed to appear in Switzerland for UN-sponsored peace talks last month.
Government loyalists have since made progress in their plan to liberate the Red Sea city from the Iran-allied extremists.
Militants’ armoured vehicles and barricaded shelters were destroyed in the latest coalition-backed attack on the edges of Hodeida, the sources said Monday.
Al Houthis used the sites to launch attacks on government forces stationed along a costal route to Hodeida with the aim of easing military pressure on them on the outskirts of the city, they added.
This week, several senior Al Houthi commanders were killed in a string of coalition air strikes around Hodeida.
The coalition accuses Al Houthis of taking advantage of their control of Hodeida port to obtain weapons from their Iranian patrons as well as confiscate aid intended for Yemenis in order to sustain their war effort.
In June, the government forces, backed by the coalition, started a major offensive to expel Al Houthis from Hodeida.
The campaign was temporarily halted in support of UN efforts to revive Yemen’s long-stalemated peace process.
In 2015, the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, intervened in Yemen at a request of the government against Al Houthis after the militants advanced on the southern city of Aden, the temporary capital of the country after their takeover of the capital Sana’a.
The war has devastated Yemen’s economy and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.
Yemenis in some provinces on Monday took to the streets protesting high prices of goods, local media reported.
Angry protesters blocked main roads in Aden to show their anger at the plunge in the local currency, news portal Adan Al Ghad said.
The Yemeni rial has lost about two thirds of its value since Al Houthis ousted the government in late 2014.
Last month, Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi ordered an increase in salaries for public sector employees following a string of mass protests in several parts of the country.
