11 Yemen soldiers killed in clashes and rebel attack
Fighting has carried on despite repeated calls for a ceasefire as part of global efforts to combat coronavirus.
Published On 17 Aug 2020
Eleven Yemeni government troops, including a senior officer, were killed in a rebel missile attack and clashes to the northeast and east of the capital Sanaa, military and medical sources said Monday.
General Mohammed Ali-Roqn, commander of the army’s 122 Brigade, along with eight other soldiers were killed in battle in Al-Jawf province on Sunday while trying to reclaim positions lost months ago, the sources said.
Keep reading
list of 4 itemsUS sanctions shipping firm accused of links to Iran, Yemen’s Houthis
Vessel struck in Red Sea as Houthis promise attacks on more shipping lanes
What we know about deadly Houthi attack on cargo ship
The rebels also suffered casualties, a military official added without elaborating.
Houthi rebels took control of the capital of northern al-Jawf province earlier this year – a strategic advance that means they now threaten oil-producing Marib province.
Yemen’s vice president, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, in a statement carried by the official Saba news agency, said al-Roqn was killed “while conducting military operations” in al-Jawf.
Two government troops were killed and four others wounded in a Houthi missile attack on a military base in Marib, east of Sanaa, a government official said.
|
|
Al-Qaeda fighters
Renewed clashes also broke out in al-Baida – which is under nominal government control – between loyalist forces and the Houthis, who have launched offensives against al-Qaeda fighters in the province.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – considered the armed group’s most dangerous branch – has carried out operations against both the Houthis and government forces.
AQAP on Saturday executed a dentist in al-Baida accused of spying for the government and guiding US drone strikes targeting the group.
The government and rebels have been locked in a five-year war that has killed tens of thousands of people, triggering what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Fighting has carried on despite repeated calls for a ceasefire as part of global efforts to combat the coronavirus, which health agencies fear could become a disastrous outbreak in impoverished Yemen.
More than 1,800 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Yemen, including 530 deaths.
Source: AFP