Taiz- Insurgency Houthi leader Sharaf Ali Jahm, also known by his alias ‘Abu Jihad,’ was killed along with two companions in fierce clashes on Wednesday with Popular Resistance in Usaylan district in Shabwa governorate.
Popular Resistance fighters also thwarted a militia-launched assault site west of Hajr Kahlan, nearby to Bayhan al Qasab in northeast Yemen, resistance source told Yemen news agency SABA.
Militia field commander Salim al-Fishi, referred to as “Abu Ali,” was also killed in the confrontations, in which the pro-government forces comprising army troops and the resistance combatants reclaimed control over Khazan, Masnaa and Jinan in the coastal Taiz province.
Pro-government forces deployed vital military reinforcements towards the western coast of Yemen in order to bolster army positions.
Both the Popular Resistance and the National Army are battling violent battles to secure control over the west-coast-based and strategic Khalid bin Walid camp.
Nestled between Al Nar and Mabeta mountains in the southern province of Taiz, Houthis run the former military post known by the Khalid bin Walid camp.
“Military reinforcements, including armored vehicles, military equipment, and personnel coming from Aden, have successfully arrived at National Army stations in the Mokha governorate,” a military source said. Mokha is a port city located in the Taiz Governorate.
Dispatched reinforcements will aid in speeding up the liberation of Khalid bin Walid camp – clearing the way through to Hodeidah governorate and its strategic harbor, added the source.
Government forces battling Iran-backed Houthi militiamen on the edges of the Khokha region, in Hodeidah, in January launched a major offensive on the Red Sea coastline to seize control of major ports from where Houthis smuggle in arms from Iran.
In an attempt to slow advances made by government forces, Houthis have also planted thousands of landmines along the battlefield.
Ongoing fighting has ravaged Yemen as Houthis, aligned with Iran, lead a violent coup against the constitutionally elected and internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to help the government retake the capital Sana’a.