Yemeni loyalists prepare for assault against rebels in Zabid

Yemeni pro-government forces are massing for an offensive to liberate the rebel-held city of Zabid in Hodeidah province.

Thousands of trained fighters have been sent, the state news agency Wam reported.

With advanced military equipment, the troops will try to liberate the city while avoiding casualties to the civilian population, who are being used as shields by the Iran-backed rebels.

A Unesco World Heritage Site, Zabid is considered a key point for Yemeni forces to advance deeper into rebel-held areas east of Hodeidah.

Yemeni forces backed by the Arab Coalition have seized several parts of the province from the Iran-backed rebels, while an offensive to retake Hodeidah city and its port was suspended this month to assist UN mediation efforts.

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, stepped up negotiations with the Yemeni government and the Houthis after the offensive on Hodeidah city was launched in mid-June.

Coalition and government forces recaptured Hodeidah’s airport but operations were halted to allow Mr Griffiths to negotiate a peaceful handover of the city.

So far, the Houthis have offered only to cede control of Hodeidah port to the UN.

Officers in the two main Yemeni forces involved in the Hodeidah offensive, the Amalikah Brigades and the Tihama Resistance, told The National that the coalition had ordered them to gather their forces.

The coalition has moved reinforcements to the western front, including tanks and armoured vehicles, the officers said.

Separately, six high-ranking Houthi rebels were reported to have been killed during clashes on Friday in the northern province of Saada.

Ramzi Mokhtar, a journalist covering the military operations in Saada and neighbouring Jawf province, told The National that the rebels were killed on the Al Malaheedh front in Al Dhaher district in the west of Saada.

The coalition last month announced that eight members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah were killed in Saada, the first official confirmation that fighters from the group – which is also backed by Iran – were present in Yemen.

In response to a protest from Yemen, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said his government’s position on the Yemeni crisis was not identical to those of all Lebanese political groups.

Lebanon distances itself from conflicts and interference in the internal affairs of other countries, Mr Bassil said in a letter to Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Alyemanim, a source in the foreign ministry told staterun Saba news agency.

The source told Saba that Mr Bassil’s letter in effect said that Hezbollah had departed from Lebanese government policy. Hezbollah has expressed support for the Houthis but denied being involved Yemen’s threeyear-old civil war.

The coalition has helped government forces wrest large areas of southern Yemen from rebel control since entering the conflict at President Abdrabu’s Mansur Hadi’s request in March 2015.

Fighting now is concentrated mainly in the northern Yemen and Hodeidah.

Thousands of the troops have been sent to Zabid, determined to protect civilians being used as human shields