Local sources revealed that a leading member of Qaeda was killed in Azzan city of Shabwa Governorate during air raids conducted by the Arab Coalition. Meanwhile, Houthi militias carried out attacks against areas controlled by the governmental troops in Taiz, leading to the killing of a number of soldiers loyal to legitimate government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Insurgency militias in Yemen have carried out mass executions, killing several of their members on accusations of fleeing a losing battle against government forces, said army chief of staff Mohammed al-Maqdishi. Maqdashi condemned the executions in the Mokhadara area in Sirwah and vowed to prosecute militias’ leaders for all their crimes against the Yemeni people.
Yemen’s Saba news agency reported Maqdishi as saying that Sirwah, west of Maarib, will soon be liberated and it will soon be within the government’s jurisdiction and control. He had also made a field visit to army units near the Marthad mountain northwest of Sirwah, praising the efforts and victories of the soldiers
In related news, 30 Houthi and Saleh militants were killed and injured during raids launched by the Coalition to Support the Legitimacy in Yemen against several insurgency positions, said a military source. The source added that the bombardment was centralized on insurgent locations in the Khalid Ibn al-Walid camp west of Taiz.
On Saturday, Arab coalition air forces bombed Houthi militant posts off the Jazan port after militias attempted to target civilian sites on the Saudi border, according to al-Arabiya television. Military sources confirmed that the coalition targeted two positions, killing 27 Houthi and Saleh militants and destroying anti-tank shields, military vehicles and an ammunition cache.
The militias are trying to advance towards army positions in al-Mafalis in the Haifan district to the south of Taiz. The army retaliated on Saturday by increasing its raids against the militants, killing eight, including an insurgency war media photojournalist. Several other militants were injured while trying to infiltrate army locations in Mafalis.
On the other hand, A senior source in the Arab coalition backing the legitimate government in Yemen denied on Monday a report on a meeting between spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition Ahmad Asiri and the son of deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In a phone call to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, the source said that Asiri did not sit down with Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh as was mentioned by an online French journal. Saleh, who was deposed in 2011 during Yemen’s “Arab Spring”, is currently in league with the Iran-backed Houthi movement.
The source, who spoke under anonymity , also denounced the “false news which claimed that the coalition seeks to drop support for the constitutionally elected leader President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. “The coalition supports the legitimate Yemeni government headed by President Hadi and his internationally recognized government under UN Resolution 2216,” the source added.