Yemeni government forces strike Houthi positions, down 5 drones

Yemeni government forces said Sunday they carried out airstrikes against Houthi positions, personnel, and military equipment and shot down five drones belonging to the group amid escalating fighting across the country.

The Yemeni Armed Forces’ media center said army aircraft conducted three strikes on Houthi positions and barracks in Al-Taba Al-Sawda and Jabal Al-Munim on the Al-Dhabab front in southwestern Taiz province.

The army-affiliated September Net website separately reported that air forces targeted Houthi personnel, equipment, and vehicles in the coastal city of Dhubab and on northern fronts.

The strikes destroyed vehicles and weapons and killed Houthi fighters, the report said, without providing casualty figures.

In a separate development, the government-aligned Nation’s Shield Forces said its 6th Brigade shot down five Houthi drones in the Al-Aghbara area on the Al-Wazi’iyah front west of Taiz during clashes.

The developments come amid major changes in territorial control in recent days as fighting between government forces and the Houthis, which intensified in early July, continues.

The Houthis have announced taking control of several districts in the western coastal provinces of Al-Hudaydah and Taiz, as well as islands in the Red Sea, including Mayyun Island in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Government forces, meanwhile, have reported advances in the northern Al-Jawf province near the Saudi border and said they were approaching the provincial capital Al-Hazm.

Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and several provinces in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.