AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s army said on Wednesday that 42 people have been killed and 185 injured in attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis in various locations in the southern city of Taiz over the last five months.
The army reiterated calls for more aggressive pressure on the Houthis to abide by a truce between them and the Yemeni government.
Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a Yemeni military officer in Taiz, told Arab News that the Houthis have committed 4,450 violations since April 2, killing 30 soldiers and 12 civilians, including women and children, and injuring 131 soldiers and 54 civilians.
“We had no sense of a ceasefire at all,” Al-Baher said. “The bloodbath did not end, and neither did the siege nor … On the contrary, hostilities have risen to unprecedented levels.”
Under the truce, which has been renewed twice, the Houthis and the Yemeni government have agreed to cease fighting, allow commercial flights to leave Sanaa, and provide fuel ships with easy access to the port of Hodeidah.
A joint committee was formed to discuss the opening of roads in besieged Taiz and other provinces.
Yemeni officials argue that Taiz, the country’s third-largest city, is the only city that has not benefited from the truce because the Houthis have not stopped their arbitrary and lethal attacks on civilian and military gatherings. They claim that the Houthis have not lifted their seven-year blockade of the city.
The Houthis have recently concentrated their attacks on a narrow and unpaved road in the Al-Dhabab area to the west of Taiz that connects the city with several Yemeni cities.
The Houthis seized full control of Taiz’s gateways and the major thoroughfares that link the city to Sanaa, Hodeidah and Aden, obstructing goods and humanitarian aid for hundreds of thousands of people.
“Imagine that they are currently attacking the lone route that connects Taiz to the outside world. Those people are not serious about peace,” Al-Baher stated, adding that army troops have successfully repelled Houthi advances on Al-Dhabab over the past 48 hours.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people in Aden attended a funeral procession for a military commander killed by the Houthis in the province of Lahj.
Officials said a Houthi sniper shot dead Haddar Al-Shawhati, commander of the 4th Support and Reinforcements Brigade, on Tuesday while he was touring the frontlines in the Yafae area.
