Hadi forces ‘recapture’ 85% of Yemen’s Taiz

The Yemen National Army (YNA) has retaken 85 per cent of Taiz city from the Houthi armed group, Yemen Today reported.

Military fronts in northern Yemen’s Saada governorate have achieved “accelerated victories” against the Houthi group, the YNA told Yemen Today.

Saudi Arabia continues to support the YNA with air strikes as the YNA is called upon to keep its current pace in Taiz.

Early this week, the YNA retook the Hays district based in southern Hudaydah governorate, which the office of internationally recognised President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi confirmed. In Baydah governorate the YNA is now in control of Nati directorate and has spread its forces into the Houthi stronghold of Saada governorate, retaking the province of Baqam.

Despite recent events in southern Yemen’s Aden, the Houthis failed to take advantage of the West Coast front and forward its rebel forces to retake lost territory in the Khokha district. The territory was lost to Hadi’s YNA who are fighting alongside an alliance with the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council and the Thima tribe based on the West Coast.

General Nasser Al-Dhaybani, a military commander of the YNA, said early this week that his troops are moving closer to the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a “every day”.

The Yemen civil war erupted in 2014 when the Houthis took over Sana’a alongside an alliance with late President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) party. The Houthis continue to control northern Yemen.

Some 10,000 Yemenis have already been killed as a result of the unrest in the country.

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