Yemeni forces capture dozens of Houthis in Al Hudaydah amid clashes: Official - Anadolu Ajansı

Yemeni government forces captured dozens of Houthis during clashes in the western province of Al Hudaydah, a government official said Saturday.

Fayyad al-Numan, assistant undersecretary at Yemen’s Information Ministry, said in a statement that government forces had captured “dozens of members of the terrorist Houthi militia” during clashes in Al-Jarahi district in southern Al Hudaydah.

Activists also posted images on social media that they said showed Houthi captives held by government forces in the province.

The Houthis had not commented on the report as of 1400GMT.

Later, Yemen’s official SABA news agency quoted an unnamed military source as saying that government forces had “fully liberated Hays district in Al Hudaydah province from the control of the Iran-backed Houthi militia after retaking and securing the district’s rural areas.”

The source added that government forces had recaptured areas around the Al-Barh junction in western Taiz and advanced toward Houthi positions as the group’s fighters retreated and fled, leaving dozens dead and wounded.

Hays occupies a strategic location linking the three Yemeni provinces of Al Hudaydah and Taiz in the west and Ibb in central Yemen, according to an Anadolu correspondent.

Earlier Saturday, the military media of the government-aligned National Resistance Forces said its units had shot down two Houthi attack drones in the southwestern province of Taiz.

The development comes amid a military escalation across several fronts in Yemen in recent days amid reciprocal attacks that began in July, ending a period of relative calm in Yemen since a UN-brokered truce in April 2022.

​​​​​​​The Houthis have controlled the capital, Sanaa, and several other cities since September 2014, while the internationally recognized government and allied forces control extensive areas in the country’s south, east and west.