Forces supporting Yemeni government lose 500 fighters in battles with Houthis — TV

RABAT, September 13. /TASS/. Forces supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government lost 500 fighters in battles with the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah (the Houthis) over the past month, while around 1,500 others were wounded, a representative of the pro-government forces said.

"Five hundred resistance fighters were killed and 1,500 wounded in fighting along Yemen’s southwestern coast between August 9 and September 10," Al Jazeera quoted the representative as saying. He noted that "Houthi attacks in the region were supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC, elite units of the armed forces] and its allies."

The representative added that the resistance forces had "redeployed to new defensive lines to thwart a plan to encircle them."

The situation in Yemen deteriorated sharply in early September when Ansar Allah launched an offensive in the country’s southwest. Alongside the ground operation, the Houthis began carrying out missile and drone strikes on coastal areas along the Red Sea and near Taiz in an effort to sever routes to Mokha and advance toward areas close to the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait.