OMM Redaksiyası
At least six civilians were killed and four others injured, including women and children, in Houthi shelling of residential villages south of Yemen’s Taiz province on Tuesday, state-run Saba news agency reported.
A woman was killed and four civilians, including a child and two women, were injured when shelling struck the villages of Al-Doum, Hujrah and Al-Manawid in the Bani Yusuf area of Al-Mawasit district, Saba said, citing local sources.
In Al-Misrakh district, a mortar shell hit a family home in the village of Al-Sarm, killing a man, his wife and daughter, as well as his son’s wife and her children, the sources said.
They also reported civilian casualties from continued shelling of residential villages in the Quds area amid ongoing fighting, but gave no separate toll.
According to the sources, Houthi forces are surrounding several villages in the area and preventing residents and wounded civilians from leaving to seek medical care. The Houthis have not commented on the report.
Yemen announces military operation as fighting intensifies
The latest casualties come amid a sharp escalation in fighting across Taiz. On Monday, Rashad al-Alimi, chair of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced the launch of Operation Dawn of Yemen, saying its aims were to restore state institutions, retake Sanaa and end Houthi control.
Government forces said on the same day that they had retaken the strategic city of Mokha and the Bab el-Mandeb area in southwestern Yemen.
Government forces and their allies control the interim capital, Aden, in the south, the eastern provinces of Al-Mahra and Hadramout, the southern provinces of Shabwa and Abyan, most of Lahj, Taiz and Al-Dhale in the southwest, parts of Marib in central Yemen, and Al-Jawf, Hajjah and Saada in the north.
The latest developments are part of a military escalation that began in July, the broadest since a period of relative calm following a UN-brokered truce that began in 2022. Fighting intensified in September, when the Houthis seized key areas in Al Hudaydah and Taiz provinces, including Mokha, before advancing as far as Mayun Island, which overlooks the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Yemen has been in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and several provinces in 2014. A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.
