Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Yemeni Government Resumes Military Operations, Ahmar Leads Campaign from Ma’reb | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An employee stands in the bomb-damaged factory in the Yemeni capital’s Nahda district. Khaled Abdullah/Reuters


Adan, Riyadh-Yemeni Government Forces reinforced by the Arab Coalition’s jets, resumed on Tuesday their military campaign to liberate the capital and other Houthi-controlled Yemeni provinces, following the failure of Kuwait’s peace talks and the continuous violations of rebels in respecting peace.

Saudi-led coalition jets extensively bombed rebel militia positions in Arhab, few kilometers from the international airport of Sana’a, and in Nehim.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that confrontations with Houthi-Saleh rebels have started in the direction of “Naqeel ben Ghailan,” a mountainous hill and a strategic road leading to the capital Sana’a.

According to the sources, this location will allow the Army to cut off all supplies to rebel militias currently in Bani Bareq and Barran and will allow the army to reach the headquarters of directorate of Nehim.

Houthi rebels allied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who led the country from 1990 to 2012, fight with forces loyal to the ousted president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

The coalition had suspended their military attacks on the capital when U.N.-brokered peace talks were held in Kuwait.

On Tuesday, all flights into and from the airport of Sana’a were suspended for 72 hours after the airstrike, the Coalition had said.

General Mohamed Ali al-Makdashi, the chief of staff of Hadi’s forces, said on Tuesday the phase of firmness had started on all fronts, and mainly in the capital Sana’a.

Al-Makdashi revealed the presence of a large number of military forces currently positioned in Ma’rab, ready to join forces fighting on all fronts.

The general called on Sana’a residents to stay away from the sources of the enemy fire, adding his troops will reply to any attack.

“We respected the ceasefire but rebel militias failed to do so, therefore, the political leadership has decided to reactivate military actions on all fronts and liberate the country from rebels,” he said.

Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hadi’s vice president, Lieutenant General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar arrived on Tuesday at the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia to supervise the military operations at all battlefronts from inside Yemen.