International Shia News Agency

Houthi fighters advance in south Yemen despite Saudi attacks

SHAFAQNA –

Yemen’s Ansarullah Houthi fighters have gained control of the country’s southern district of Tawahi in Aden Province despite ongoing airstrikes by Saudi Arabia.

According to local media on Wednesday, the police headquarters and the presidential palace in Tawahi were captured by Ansarullah fighters before the entire district fell into the hands of the revolutionary fighters.

The gains came following intense clashes with al-Qaeda-linked militants. According to eyewitnesses in the area, soon after the Ansarullah fighters captured the district, Saudi warplanes began pounding their positions.

Reports said Houthis released dozens of people who were jailed by al-Qaeda militants since three months ago. The Houthi fighters and the allied army units have already managed to purge the terrorists from major government compounds in Aden, including the presidential palace and a TV station.

Tawahi district’s military commander, Major General Ali Nasser al-Hassani, is said to have been killed by Ansarullah fighters in the Tuesday clashes. Other sources said that Ali Naser Hadi, commander of Yemen’s Fourth Brigade and a close relative of the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, has been killed along with two of his companions.

According to reports, clashes are also continuing in Ma’rib Province, in central Yemen.

Saudi warplanes continued striking various parts of Yemen with the latest attacks targeting the cities of Ma’rib, Sa’ada, and Dhamar, killing dozens of people, many of them women and children.

Meanwhile, Yemeni tribal forces continued to fire mortar rounds inside Saudi territory for a second consecutive day. The attacks have left at least four people dead in the border city of Najran.

Four other Saudis including two officers were killed in similar attacks on Tuesday. Saudi authorities have declared a state of military alert in Najran following the attacks.

Reports say security forces patrolled neighborhoods in the city declaring the curfew by loudspeakers. According to activists, Saudi authorities have also cut off Internet services in the city since Tuesday evening.

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The Saudi military campaign has claimed the lives of over 12,00 people so far and injured several thousand others. Hundreds of women and children are among the victims, according to the United Nations health agency.

Source : Press TV

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