129 killed as Yemen fighting surges

Nearly 130 people have been killed in Yemen since Houthi forces launched an advance towards the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait a day earlier, according to sources, in the deadliest clashes in years between the rebels and government forces.

The death toll rose to 129 on Friday, according to an AFP tally compiled from several sources, up from an earlier count of 81 combatants killed since Thursday. A Yemeni military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 66 government forces had been killed.

Medical and military sources close to the Houthis said at least 62 of the group's fighters had also died, while another medical source reported the death of one civilian. The latest escalation centred on several fronts west of Taiz province in southwestern Yemen.

Yemeni government forces, which have been engaged in fierce clashes with Houthi fighters in the country's southwest, retook Tabbat al-Khazan on Friday, a strategic position in the Jabal Habashi district, following heavy fighting with Houthi forces, state-run Saba TV reported.

Fighting also intensified on the Maqbanah and Al-Kadha fronts west of Taiz. A military source told Saba TV that the government forces had shot down a Houthi drone on the Maqbanah front and disabled a military vehicle belonging to the group.

The source said clashes were continuing, with government forces advancing and inflicting casualties and equipment losses on Houthi forces. Military sources also reported the arrival of reinforcements as part of operations to counter Houthi attacks and movements on the western Taiz fronts.

The latest fighting followed clashes on Thursday in which the Yemeni army said 50 Houthi fighters were killed or wounded after government forces thwarted an attack aimed at taking control of a road linking the cities of Taiz and Mocha in western Yemen.

The Taiz front also witnessed an escalation involving ballistic

missiles, drones and ground clashes in Al-Kadhah, Maqbanah and Mawza districts.

The recent violence is among the most significant rounds of fighting in Taiz since a UN-brokered truce in 2022, amid warnings from the United Nations about the risk of Yemen sliding back into a wider conflict.

Yemen has been embroiled in civil war for more than a decade. The Houthis have controlled the capital Sanaa and other cities since September 2014, while the internationally recognised government and allied forces control large areas in the south, east and west.

Government military sources said the Houthis were attempting to cut off the key port city of Mokha from other government-held areas and advance towards territory bordering the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.