Deaths from a restaurant explosion in Mokha and bloody clashes in western Yemen

Taiz- More than 80 people have been killed in clashes between Yemeni government forces and the Houthis since Thursday, sources on both sides told Agence France-Presse on Friday.

Yemeni government media reported civilian casualties after the Houthis fired a ballistic missile at a restaurant in the Mokha junction.

In this context, a Yemeni military official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that 24 members of government forces were killed near the West Bank, while another military official said that 15 others were killed in clashes in Taiz. Medical sources in areas under Houthi control said at least 42 militants were killed.

On the other hand, the Yemeni government forces in Taiz province (southwest of the country), on Friday dawn, prevented a large-scale attack by the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) on its positions on the eastern front of the city, which coincided with the restoration of a strategic military area in the western villages and in the western part of the confrontation on the western front.

“brutal” clashes

In a special statement to Al Jazeera Net, Muhib al-Huri, a military source in the Taiz Axis Command, confirmed that the fierce clashes began on Friday midnight and continued until the morning in the eastern front sectors, especially the Ceremonies axis, the Republican Palace and Al-Dawa. The latest escalation by the Houthis is in an attempt to confuse the military scene and control the initiative.

Al-Huri explained that the Houthi group is trying, by opening new battle axes to the east and north of the city, to disperse the concentration of government forces and prevent them from sending field reinforcements to the Maqabah and Al-Qada fronts on the West Bank and the nearby port near the Babhador international port, which leads to the Maqabah and Al-Qada fronts. Al-Mandab.

Al-Huri revealed to Al-Jazeera Net that government forces in the “Third Battalion” conducted a surprise raid targeting new strongholds and neighborhoods created by members of the Houthi group in the “Lower Kriwat” area on the eastern front. The attack resulted in casualties among the Houthis and the looting of automatic weapons and walkie-talkies.

No official figures from the Houthis or the Yemeni government have yet been released.

Annoying events

In the context of developments in the western countryside, al-Huri pointed to the arrival of additional military reinforcements in support of forces on the al-Qada and Maqbana fronts (from the 35th Armored Brigade and the 145th Infantry Brigade), which allowed government forces to launch a strategic counterattack. Al-Numan’ in Al-Qada district after the site fell to the Houthis last Thursday evening.

“Jabal al-Numan” has great military importance. Because it is located on high ground directly overseeing the land supply lines between the city of Taiz and the West Bank, it forms a protective wall for the passages leading to the international water artery into the Red Sea.

Controversies spread to Hayes and the West Bank

At the corresponding level, field battles and mutual artillery bombardment spread in the Hais sector and southern Tuhaita on the west coast. Combined forces thwarted Houthi infiltration attempts through farms and valleys adjacent to the contact lines that separate Hodeidah governorate in the south and the northwestern suburbs of Taiz.

Al Jazeera Net has obtained exclusive photographs documenting the seizure of a Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK-47) and a walkie-talkie after raids and field confrontations on the Eastern Front.

The National Resistance Forces of the Yemeni government announced on Thursday evening that its forces were involved in violent battles with the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) in the south of Hodeidah governorate in the west of the country, while the December 2 agency, the mouthpiece of the National Resistance, reported that the First National Resistance Division was involved in a violent clash. Their attempt to approach Jabal Debas, south of Hodeidah.

Clashes continue on the western Taiz front, especially the Maqbana and al-Qada fronts, in addition to the West Bank front.

The developments come amid an ongoing military escalation between government forces and the Houthi group in western Yemen, which has included clashes and attacks with ballistic missiles and drones.

Clashes between government forces and the Houthi group have resumed since early July in several governorates, including Marib (central) and al-Jawf (north), as well as al-Daliyah and Taiz, after a lull that lasted from April 2022 following a war that began about 12 years ago between government forces and the capital, which controls several cities. Sana’a, from September 21, 2014.