Yemeni airstrikes hit Houthi sites as clashes intensify in Taiz, Lahj: official

Yemeni government forces carried out fresh airstrikes on Houthi positions in the southwestern Taiz province on Thursday as fighting intensified on several fronts in western Taiz and neighbouring Lahj province, according to a government official.

Fayyad Alnoman, assistant undersecretary at Yemen’s Information Ministry for television affairs, said on US social media company X that local sources reported the strike hit Houthi reinforcements at the Al-Dharifah junction in Al-Wazi'iyah district, west of Taiz.

In a separate development, a Yemeni air force strike targeted a Houthi communications centre in the Al-Hawban area east of Taiz city, according to field reports.

Alnoman cited field sources as reporting continued heavy fighting between government forces and Houthi fighters across the Kahbub mountain range, which stretches between Lahj and Taiz provinces.

The mountain range is considered strategically important because it overlooks routes leading toward Yemen’s western coast, Bab el-Mandeb and the city of Dhubab.

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Government forces reportedly seized several highlands in the Kahbub range and launched a counteroffensive toward positions and areas still held by the Houthis.

In an earlier post before the latest update, Alnoman said field sources reported clashes between government forces and Houthi fighters on the Al-Anin and Bilad al-Wafi fronts in Jabal Habashi district, west of Taiz.

The Houthi group has not immediately commented on the reports.

Western Taiz has witnessed intensified fighting in recent weeks. On Wednesday, Yemeni government forces said they targeted Houthi positions, barracks and personnel on the Al-Kadha front, while airstrikes also hit Houthi positions and gatherings elsewhere west of Taiz.

Fighting between Yemeni government forces and the Houthis has intensified since early July.

The renewed fighting has ended a period of relative calm that had largely prevailed since a UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022.

Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and several provinces in September 2014, prompting a Saudi-led Arab coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.