Daijiworld Media Network - Sanaa

Sanaa, Sep 6: Military forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government have engaged in intense clashes with Houthi rebels across multiple fronts, with fighting reported most heavily in Taiz and Hodeidah provinces and along the western Red Sea coast.

Yemen’s military said it had recaptured Hais district, south of Hodeidah, an area linking the provinces of Hodeidah, Taiz and Ibb, according to Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.

Presidential Leadership Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi said Yemen’s armed forces were capable of restoring full control over the country’s territory and warned that the Houthis “will bear the consequences”.

“Taiz will not be a corridor” for the group’s backers, he said, referring to Iran.

Al-Alimi said the Houthis’ “miscalculations” would lead to their “complete collapse”.

The latest fighting follows tit-for-tat attacks that broke out last week, with air raids and ground offensives involving government troops and the Iran-backed rebels.

Fayad al-Numan, deputy undersecretary of Yemen’s Ministry of Information, said government troops had also captured dozens of Houthi fighters during fighting in the nearby al-Jarahi district, where government forces later launched a counteroffensive.

Yemeni forces continued strikes on Houthi positions in areas across Taiz and Lahj on Saturday.

Yemeni media reported that military drones destroyed Houthi reinforcements south of al-Jarahi in coordination with a ground assault.

Powerful explosions were heard in Taiz on Sunday, with reports indicating that Yemen’s Defence Ministry had deployed new weapons systems.

Yemen’s military spokesman Colonel Majed al-Nozaili said forces had targeted a Houthi site in the province in response to what he described as the group’s “violations and escalation”.

The renewed clashes have taken a heavy toll on civilians.

Clashes in Taiz killed more than 60 people, including civilians, on Saturday, according to the AFP news agency.

Yemen’s state news agency Saba’a, meanwhile, reported that Houthi shelling of a civilian gathering on the road linking Taiz and Aden killed four civilians and injured nine others.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said about 1,800 families had been displaced over the previous two days as fighting escalated in Taiz.

The Yemeni government has separately warned that any Houthi movement towards the Bab al-Mandeb Strait would face “harsh attrition”.