Violence intensifies in Taiz

Amid the end of the 48 hour ceasefire yesterday; there have been a number of military advances in the Taiz province.

Locals have reported coalition airstrikes have targeted Houthi and Saleh positions in Taiz and on the outskirts of neighbouring southern province Lahj.

In the early hours of this morning, around 06:00 Yemen time, the Saudi coalition commander announced that all civilians in the Shara’ab junction and Al-Houban district should leave the area as fighting was due to intensify. Both areas are Houthi strongholds in Taiz.

Local resistance forces have also seized a storage base of various explosives, including landmines that belong to the Houthi and Saleh militia forces in western Taiz. They also seized the Han Mountain in Western Taiz this afternoon.

So far, two civilians were reported to have been killed. Nashwan Al-Yemeni and his wife were killed after a Houthi shell landed on their house. Their children were severely injured.

Further casualties were reported from the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, it is still unclear if the airstrikes killed any civilians as yet. Yemen has been locked in a bitter battle between Houthi rebels allied with forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh and government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, along with local tribes and resistance forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition.

Nearly 60,000 people have been killed as a result of the conflict and more than three million have been displaced.