The Iranian-backed Houthis have been reinforcing frontlines in Yemen and preparing possible offensives over the last month. This has now manifested in several incidents over the last 96 hours that may be part of a pattern.
The main information on the Houthis’ activities comes from Al-Ain News in the UAE. It has good security sources in Yemen. As a UAE-based source, Al-Ain opposes the Houthis and is sympathetic to the UAE and to some extent to Saudi Arabia’s views of Yemen.
A military official of the Yemeni government told Al-Ain that the Houthis had launched an attack on a front in the Hodeidah Governorate. This is a key coastal area.
“Dozens of members of the National Resistance and Houthi militias were killed and wounded on Saturday in the fiercest battles between the two sides in the southern countryside of Hodeidah Governorate, western Yemen,” the report said.
“The clashes erupted after the Houthi militias brought in their largest reinforcements to the Dabbas Mountains and south of Al-Jarahi and tried to advance to seize strategic positions overlooking the city of Hays, south of Hodeidah on the Red Sea.
Houthi militias engage in military action
“The Houthi attack was the most intense of its kind, as the militias attempted a ground advance under heavy fire cover in an effort to gain fire control over the city of Hays,” it continued.
Al-Ain also noted that “the media officer of the Second Brigade ‘Zaraniq al-Murabit’ on this front, explained that ‘the Houthi militias relied on mortar shells and sniper units in the field advance toward the strategic locations, which were aimed at gaining fire control over the city of Hays.’”
Local anti-Houthi forces in the Hays area critiqued the UN ceasefire in Yemen, claiming it prevents them from advancing. Recently, reports indicated the Iranians sought to fly a plane to Sanaa, the Houthi capital. The Saudis attempted to interdict the attempt.
“How long will we remain bound by truce commitments that prevent us from responding and deterring forcefully from the treachery of the Houthi militias and their surprise attacks,” a local source asked Al-Ain.
The Yemen National Resistance, which opposes the Houthis, has lost 14 soldiers.
Yemen destroys Houthi terror cell
Meanwhile, Al-Ain also said that “Yemeni authorities announced on Saturday the dismantling of a terrorist cell belonging to the Iranian-backed Houthi militias, which was active in assassination operations, in a well-executed security operation in Aden.”
Once again, the National Resistance put out details about the incident:
“Its intelligence, in cooperation with the State Security Service in Aden, succeeded in dismantling an assassination cell belonging to the Houthi militias after luring them to a hotel in the interim capital.”
The assassins had already killed a journalist and plotted to kill a general in June.
“The National Resistance had previously captured a Houthi cell involved in the assassination of Brig.-Gen. Yahya Wahish, commander of the First Infantry Division, while they were trying to escape across the Red Sea from the coast of Al-Khokha city, south of Hodeidah,” Al-Ain noted.