Cairo: Yemeni government forces have retaken control of a strategically important road linking the north-western province of Hajjah and the northern province of Saada, the latest breakthrough in a multi-front campaign against Iran-allied Al Houthi militants, Al Arabiya reported Sunday.
Backed by the Arab coalition, the Yemeni troops seized the route that runs through the district of Maran, a hometown of several Al Houthi leaders, according to the television.
The recapture of the road will allow the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to militia-besieged areas and give civilians access to government-controlled areas.
Al Houthis have long used Saada as a pad for launching missiles towards neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
In recent weeks, the government forces, backed by the coalition air power, have stepped up their attacks against Al Houthis across Yemen after the Iran-aligned rebels undermined a UN bid to revive the country’s long-stalled peace process. Earlier in September, Al Houthis failed to appear in Geneva for indirect talks with government representatives.
The coastal city of Hodeida is the focus of the government campaign.
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.
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.
At least two senior Al Houthi leaders were killed in strikes by the coalition jets in the battle for Hodeida in western Yemen, local sources said.
They were identified as Ahmad Al Alawi and Ebrahim Al Jarmi. Both were killed along with bodyguards in “elaborate” strikes on the West Coast front, the sources added, according to Yemeni news portal Barakish Net.
Al Houthis seized Hodeida in October 2014, a month after they overran the capital Sana’a in a coup against the internationally recognised government.
In 2015, the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, intervened in Yemen at a request from the government against Al Houthis after the extremists advanced on the southern city of Aden, the temporary capital of the country after their takeover of Sana’a.
