Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Houthi Leader Killed in Taiz | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Taiz-A senior Houthi military operative, who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Majed, was killed in clashes with popular resistance fighters on Wednesday in west Yemen’s Taiz city, the Yemeni army announced.

Resistance media center said that Abu Majed, a senior Houthi military operative, has been killed along with a number of other insurgents.

His death came as Houthi militias ramped up their indiscriminate missile attacks on populated neighborhoods of Taiz.

Houthi militias and militants loyal to ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh targeted the national army and Popular Resistance sites on the outskirts of strategic Han Mountain in the west, battlefield sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“They were aiming to regain this mountain along with several other sites, yet the forces were able to confront them and inflict human and material losses, including the military leader Nasser al-Kaait,” sources added.

In a related development, Houthi militias and Saleh’s forces continued their attacks on Taiz neighborhoods, especially the eastern fronts, which witnessed many conflicts as the militias tried to control different sites for the Popular Resistance.

Moreover, violent confrontations were renewed at al-Shaqab front, south Taiz, as militias tried to advance towards army and resistance bases accompanied by heavy artillery cover by militias targeting civilians’ houses.

These confrontations left Abdulmalek Ahmed Ibrahim, 60, dead. Seven of his family members, some of them children, were injured.

Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) – one of the United Nations agencies – expressed concern over the deteriorating food security and growing rates of child malnutrition in Yemen, particularly in hard-to-reach areas.

Insecurity makes access to some of Yemen’s malnutrition hotspots a challenge.

Food distribution in some of the areas is ongoing and WFP will also cover another 189,000 people in three other locations that were hard to reach in the last few weeks.

WFP needs sustained access to the most impoverished governorates, particularly Ma’rib, Al-Jawf and Taiz, a statement by WFP said.

Muhannad Hadi, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and East Europe, said the conflict in Yemen was taking a devastating toll, particularly on the most vulnerable, especially women and children.

“Hunger is increasing every day and people have exhausted all their survival strategies. Millions of people cannot survive without external assistance,” he said.

“An entire generation could be crippled by hunger,” said WFP Country Director in Yemen Torben Due.

“We need to scale up our life-saving assistance to reach more people with timely food assistance and preventive treatment. We appeal to the international community to support the people of Yemen,” he said.

“We need to provide a full ration to every family in need, but sadly we have had to reduce the size of the food basket and split assistance between impoverished families to meet growing needs,” he added.

WFP requires over $257 million in order to provide vital food assistance until March 2017.

It takes four months from the time WFP receives funds until food can be shipped to the country and is in the hands of the families who need it.

WFP is grateful to key donors that have contributed or pledged support to the people of Yemen– including the United States, Germany, Japan and the European Union.