UAE commander hails progress against Houthi rebels in Yemen
Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels suffered a major collapse on the country’s west coast, a top commander in the Saudi-led coalition said.
“The Houthi militias suffered a major collapse in their defences,” said Brig Gen Abdul Salam Al Shehhi, commander of coalition forces in the area.
“Hundreds of their dead, injured and captured members have been treated according to international laws,” Brig Gen Al Shehhi said in comments reported by state news agency, Wam, and released in a video.
Yemeni forces and the Saudiled coalition have made rapid advances in recent days in Hodeidah province, on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, beginning with the capture of Al Khokha on Thursday and followed by two more districts on Saturday.
A key objective in the province is the rebel-held port of Hodeidah farther north, through which the Houthis are able to control the flow of humanitarian aid into the country and smuggle in weapons.
“The UAE, Sudanese and Yemeni armed forces are conducting, with courage and determination, an epic battle to liberate Yemen from the control of the Iran-backed Houthi militias,” Brig Gen Al Shehhi said.
“The Yemeni citizens from liberated areas have welcomed the Arab coalition forces, reflecting their desire to liberate their country from the Iranbacked Houthi militia.”
He said humanitarian aid was being distributed in these areas, with relief convoys and thousands of food parcels sent to the city of Al Khokha and neighbouring villages.
A Yemeni army commander in Hodeidah, Abu Zara’a Al Muharramy, told The National that the rebel leaders had sent their elite Iran-trained units to the area after their fighters started to flee the battlefield.
On Saturday, “they pushed in new troops of the Al Hussein commandos and Al Quds army”, he said.
The commander said many of the fighters captured in combat were children. Those who were injured were sent for treatment to Lahj province, south of Hodeidah.
Meanwhile, an Iranian missile expert was killed in a coalition air strike in Sanaa province on Sunday.
Coalition jets struck a vehicle carrying the expert and four Houthi rebels on a mountain road in the Nakeel Bin Gaylan area of Nehm district, killing all of them, said Ramzi Al Hakimi, a journalist with the 26th September website, who is based in the area.
The highway connects Sanaa, the rebel-held capital, with the northern provinces where the Houthis have their stronghold. Al Hakimi, who is covering the battle between government forces and the rebels in Nehm, east of Sanaa, said the missile expert was believed to be travelling to a launch base when he was killed.
The rebels have fired dozens of missiles and rockets across the northern border into Saudi Arabia since the Yemen conflict began in 2015.
Saudi Arabia and the United States say debris from missiles fired this year, including one intercepted near Riyadh in November, show they were supplied by Iran. The Houthis have suffered several setbacks this month after the collapse of their alliance with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who they killed on December 4.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, hosted a meeting of the Quartet Committee on Yemen in Abu Dhabi on Sunday to assess the situation in the country.
The quartet commended the efforts by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN special envoy for Yemen, to find a political solution to the conflict and discussed Iran’s support for the Houthis, which they said was prolonging the war.