The Yemeni National Army, backed by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition air power, continued its push against coup militias overrunning governorates and advanced towards the southwest of Taiz city on Sunday.
Deadly clashes raged between Houthi forces and Yemeni government forces battling to secure Makbana; an entrance to the besieged city of Taiz with massive losses being registered on behalf of coup militants composed of loyalists fighting by the side of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Iran-aligned Houthis.
Coalition and Yemeni Forces take control of Al Twayer district, and continue to advance along Taiz west coast
Army forces in Taiz, located in northern Yemen, announced sweeping advances towards the full liberation of the area from coup militias.
National army units made the announcement after liberating the key port city of Mokha, in Taiz. The whopping advance was a chief target accomplished in keep with the military coalition-backed operation ‘Golden Spear.’ Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition freed the strategic Red Sea port city from Iran-aligned Houthis Monday afternoon.
Houthi forces had controlled Mokha since they overran the capital Sana’a in September 2014 and advanced on other regions aided by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Forces supporting President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, launched a vast offensive on January 7 to retake the coastline overlooking the Bab Al Mandab strait.
The strait is a strategically vital maritime route connecting the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Many militants had surrendered to army units, while others fled the site, field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. More so, Houthi combatants would leave behind all those killed and injured, as well as artillery, while escaping the battlefield.
President Hadi congratulated pro-government forces and the people of Yemen on the victory in Mokha, and urged the forces to push forth across the country’s many front lines – which until now have mostly fallen into stalemate – until they liberate the whole country from the rebels, Yemen’s official Saba news agency as reported.