News / Yemen

Yemen’s Houthi fighters seize key route in Sana'a province

Monday, 27 January 2020 5:56 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 27 January 2020 6:02 PM ]

Tribal gunmen loyal to the Houthi Ansarullah movement take part in a rally against the Saudi blockade in Sana'a, Yemen, on August 9, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

Fighters from Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement have managed to gain ground against forces loyal to the country's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in Sana'a province.

Houthi fighters seized a strategic road that connects Sana’a to Yemen’s northern provinces of Ma'rib and al-Jawf in the fighting, pro-Hadi military officials said on Monday.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Houthis are now seeking to take the provincial capital city of al-Hazm in Jawf, adding that they were just five kilometers (three miles) from the city.

The development came three days after Yemeni army forces, backed by allied fighters from the Popular Committees, reportedly seized strategic areas in the country’s capital province of Sana’a from Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Hadi.

Yemeni military sources reported on Friday that Yemeni soldiers and their allies had managed to wrest control over key areas in Nihm district, which lies east of the capital Sana’a.

The sources added that the areas cover an expanse of some 3,000 square kilometers, and oversee regions in the neighboring Ma’rib province.

Yemeni troops, allies seize strategic areas east of Sana’a from pro-Hadi forces

The areas cover an expanse of some 3,000 square kilometers.

Renewed fighting erupted in Ma'rib nearly two weeks ago, after a missile attack targeted a military camp in the city, where Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Hadi are based.

Yemen’s ruling Houthi Ansarullah movement has rejected a claim by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that it was behind the deadly missile attack which took place on January 18.

The Saudi regime and the UAE — two key parties to a Riyadh-led coalition waging war on Yemen — blamed the raid on the Houthi movement, which has been defending the country against the massive military invasion.

Yemen dismisses Saudi, UAE claim of Houthi role in deadly missile attack in Ma’rib

Yemen’s Houthi movement says it had no role in a deadly missile raid that targeted pro-Riyadh militants in Ma’rib contrary to what Saudi Arabia and the UAE claim.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah movement.

Tens of thousands of people — most of them civilians — have been killed in the Saudi-led airstrikes and ground operations in Yemen over the past five years.

The Houthis have responded by targeting military positions deep inside Saudi Arabia or sites inside Yemen where Saudi mercenaries and military forces are deployed.

The Saudi-led war has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with the UN saying that over 11 million people face a daily struggle to find enough food, and 240,000 people live in famine-like conditions.

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