Aden – Saudi-led Arab coalition fighters carried out air raids on military positions controlled by coupists in the vicinity of the “Presidential Palace” in Sanaa, in keep with intensifying clashes in Jawf and Shabwa and Hajjah.

Eyewitnesses told Asharq Al-Awsat that battles are by far the most violent the war-torn country has seen in over a month.

Air strikes have surgically pounded military positions affiliated with armed loyalists backing deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Jabal al-Nahdeen– other raids targeted a missile Launchpad in Faj Atan south of Sanaa.

Pro-Saleh armed loyalists have joined forces with Houthi insurgents pushing an Iranian agenda in Yemen. In 2014 insurgents overrun the capital and undermined its institutions setting ground for a ravaging civil war which had endured till the present day.

Saudi Arabia had led an intervention coalition made up of a number of Arab states to support the elected Yemen government headed by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and restore it to power.

While Iran funds and arms Houthi militias staging attacks and imposing rouge rule over territory, the Arab Coalition stages counter-operations to aid in stabilizing the country.

Locals in Sanaa, the putschists’ de facto capital, said that violent explosions ripped through militia territory accompanied by increased flight activity by Arab coalition fighters that combed the city’s airspace for hours.

Coalition fighters also launched heavy air raids on Houthi reinforcements and militia barracks in the Nihm District (40 km east of Sanaa), artillery shelling and exchange of gunfire were registered.

Fighting between national army forces and militias continued on a number of fronts in Houthi-run provinces.
National Army units launched a fierce attack on reinforcements and a militia gathering in Khabb wa ash Sha’af District, killing and wounding a number of militia combatants, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Militia gear and military arsenal were heavily destroyed.