Yemen loyalists push back rebels

Forces lose seven as Houthis rebuffed around Mokha

ADEN // Yemeni pro- government forces made gains around the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha in heavy fighting as they rebuffed a Houthi counter-offensive, a military source said yesterday.

Seven loyalist troops and 16 Houthi rebels were killed in the fighting that took place overnight from Wednesday to yesterday, hospital sources said.

Twelve soldiers and 28 rebels were wounded.

Pro- government forces captured Yakhtul, 14 kilometres north of Mokha, and Jabal Al Nar, 10km to the east, the military source said.

This has consolidated their grip on Mokha, which they recaptured on February 10.

Twelve rebels were taken prisoner. On Tuesday, loyalist forces suffered a major setback in the offensive they launched last month to try to recapture Yemen’s 450- kilometre- long Red Sea coastline, which had been almost entirely in rebel hands. Houthi forces counter-attacked, killing a deputy army commander and 18 troops.

The loyalists’ capture of Mokha on February 10 was their biggest success in months but the rebels still hold most of the Red Sea coastline.

The government’s next goal is to recapture the main Red Sea port city of Hodeidah – an important conduit for UN-supervised aid deliveries to rebel-held areas.

Airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of the Yemeni government struck Hodeidah province on Wednesday, killing seven rebels and wounding 15, military sources said.

The raids targeted an arms warehouse in Bayt Al Faqih and a missile launcher in Bail.

Elsewhere, Houthi rocket fire killed a policeman and wounded a civilian in Saudi Arabia, close to the Yemeni border, the Saudi civil defence department said on Wednesday.

At least 128 people have died in southern Saudi Arabia since the coalition launched its intervention in Yemen in March 2015, some in border skirmishes, others in rebel rocket fire.

Video footage circulating on social media showed shattered glass and a trail of blood at the entrance to a court building in Dhahran South. Those who posted the video said it showed the aftermath of the Wednesday’s rocket strike.

The building’s front wall was pockmarked by shrapnel. A guardhouse appeared to have taken the brunt of the strike and a policeman was slumped and bloodied in his chair, apparently dead.