DUBAI: Dozens of Yemeni pro-government fighters have been killed in a new offensive to take a city, loyalist sources said on Tuesday, following a surge in violence including missile attacks on the UAE.
Thirty-two soldiers have died and at least 100 have been wounded in three days of fighting to drive the fighters from Haradh, north of the capital Sanaa and near the Saudi border, the sources said.
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war between the government and Ansar Allah who control much of the north, since 2014.
The latest clashes come after Ansar Allah fighters killed three oil workers in a series of drone and missile attacks on Abu Dhabi.
Fighting was still raging around Haradh on Tuesday, the pro-government sources said, adding that the loyalists have besieged the area but are yet to seize the city.
One loyalist source said at least 56 fighters were killed in the fighting and accompanying coalition air strikes. The Ansar Allah rarely report casualties in their ranks. The Yemeni conflict has intensified in recent weeks, with the coalition and loyalist forces launching a series of offensives to recover territory lost to the fighters further south.
Meanwhile, Ansar Allah have stepped up their missile and drone attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia and have launched similar assaults on the UAE, a member of the military coalition.
General Frank McKenzie, commander of the US Central Command who is in Abu Dhabi as part of efforts to bolster UAE defences, said US forces were looking at ways to combat the fighters’ low-tech, low-flying drones, which are notoriously hard to spot and intercept.
“We are working with our partners here in the region and with the industry back in the US to develop solutions that would work against drones,” McKenzie told the official WAM news agency.
“We would like to work against drones what we call ‘left of launch’, (which means) before they can be launched... And if you can’t do that, you will certainly be able to shoot them down as they reach their intended target.
“In all of those areas we’re working with our friends internationally as well as with industries in the US to become more effective at that.” — AFP
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