Fighting intensifies in Yemen as missile strike on key road kills four

Aden (Yemen): Fierce fighting between Yemen’s government forces and the Houthi group raged across the western provinces of Taiz and Hodeidah for a third consecutive day on Saturday, as a Houthi ballistic missile attack on a key road killed four people and wounded 10 others, a military official told Xinhua.

The Houthis targeted the Hayjat al-Abd road in southern Taiz with a ballistic missile as passenger vehicles were travelling along the route, destroying a bus and forcing the road to close temporarily, the local military official said on condition of anonymity.

Hayjat al-Abd is a vital mountainous route linking Taiz with neighbouring Lahj province and government-held areas farther south, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Fighting intensified across several fronts in Taiz and Hodeidah on Saturday, with both sides sending fresh troops and military vehicles to the battlefields, according to the official.

The Houthis have not immediately commented on the reported missile attack or the latest battlefield developments.

Yemeni government warplanes struck Houthi-held areas in the western provinces of Hodeidah and Taiz on Friday, backing ground troops battling a major Houthi offensive near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, a military official told Xinhua.

The airstrikes came as fierce fighting raged across multiple fronts in the two provinces, where Houthi fighters had made rapid advances over the past 24 hours, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the warplanes targeted Houthi positions and movements in areas of active ground combat. Further details on the strikes or casualties were not immediately available.

A Houthi military source confirmed the strikes but attributed them to “Saudi aggression warplanes.” Saudi Arabia has yet to comment.

As fighting intensified, Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), vowed on Friday that government forces would block the Houthis from advancing toward the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital waterway linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The latest escalation, which erupted at dawn on Thursday, has since claimed at least 90 lives, including 40 government soldiers and at least 50 Houthi fighters, across the two provinces, according to medical officials.
IANS