A boy walks in front of a house damaged in Thursday’s car bomb attack, near a mosque in Yemen’s capital Sana’a on August 14, 2015. (REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi)
The pro-Hadi fighters, known as Popular Resistance forces, now control most of the vital institutions in Taiz, including the headquarters of the Security Directorate, a spokesman for the loyalists said.
The Iran-backed Houthis responded by shelling Taiz’s Old City and other residential areas, residents told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“The Popular Resistance captured the headquarters of the Taiz Province’s Security Directorate, seizing two tanks and setting two others on fire,” Rashad Al-Shara’abi, a spokesman for the loyalist forces, told Asharq Al-Awsat.
At least 16 Houthi militants were killed and 24 injured during the clashes that raged throughout Friday, he said.
A senior Houthi commander called Zaid Abbas Amer was shot dead by a pro-Hadi sniper in the Al-Jumhuri district in southern Taiz.
The General Directorate of Electricity was set on fire after shells fired by the Houthis hit its headquarters on Friday, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Saudi-led warships on Friday approached the coast of Al-Hudaydah in western Yemen and exchanged fire with Houthis positioned in the Ad Durayhimi district, resistance sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The Houthis used heavy artillery to push back the Saudi-led warships whose arrival, analysts believe, is part of Operation Golden Arrow that resulted in the liberation of the strategic southern city of Aden last month.
“Houthi militants fired artillery shells at the approaching warships which returned fire,” sources said.
According to analysts, Hudaydah’s Ad Durayhimi district could serve as a beachhead for liberating the southwestern governorate from the Houthis.
Loyalist forces, backed by Saudi and Emirati forces, took full control of Aden last month and have since spread to the provinces of Lahj, Al-Dalea and Abyan.
Saudi Arabia has been bombarding Houthi positions in Yemen since late March when the Iran-backed rebels drove Hadi from his temporary base in Aden.
Wael Hazzam contributed additional reporting from Al-Hudaydah