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Yemeni Militias Resort to Planting Mines Across Villages after Losing in Taiz | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Yemeni students attend a class on the first day of the new school year in the capital Sanaa, on October 15, 2017 (AFP Photo/Mohammed HUWAIS)


Taiz- Militia sources in Yemen said that coup factions have stepped up their weaving of landmines into the southwestern villages near Taiz. The increase in mine-planting activity comes after suffering steep losses in the battlefield.

On the other hand, a pro-government military source belonging to the 35th Armored Brigade said that insurgency militias continued to plant mines across civilian infrastructure, such as farms, residential neighborhoods, and near water wells.

Al-Houd, Al-Sayyar, Al-Sharaf villages and the Othman Bin Affan School in Al-Houd, were among areas targeted.

The source further stressed that national army units pushed against attempts for coup militias to advance into the city of Taiz and the countryside.

Most attempts were staged to progress and restore sites lost east and northwest of the city.

The source added that Houthi-planted mines have killed 9 civilians, including two women and three children, in August alone.

Last Friday, the mines killed a citizen named Saif al-Qamri, and wounded four women in the area of ​​Hamli, west of Taiz.

Planting mines increased fiercely in retaliation to Zaid bin Ali al-Sharfi, a senior Houthi field commander, being killed in the fierce battles between militias and the Yemeni armed forces in the north-western frontier of Harad.

The statement issued by the Media Center of the fifth military region underlined that the leader of the Houthi militia, Zaid bin Ali Sharfi was killed on Friday evening, in the battles between the forces of the National Army on the one hand and Houthi, Saleh militias on the other near the border frontier of Harad.

The center quoted military sources as saying that the corpse of Sharfi is still laying in the Harad desert as the militias were unable to retrieve their dead due to fierce ongoing battles.

The statement said that the arms officer in the warehouse of the Midi Front and the leader of the Houthi militia, Waleed Mohammed Ahmed al-Houthi, was also killed along with four other Houthi leaders in an air raid by the Arab coalition east of Midi.