Dubai: At least 50 rebels and pro-government troops, including high ranking officers, have been killed in clashes in Central Province Al-Bayda Yemen, military sources to AFP on Thursday.
“A colonel and 19 other loyalists were killed in the last 24 hours in battle with Huthi rebels in the Al-Bayda district,” said a government military official.
“Thirty rebels also met their fate in battlefield clashes and air strikes.” Hutis rarely reported the victim’s number but the numbers were confirmed by other military sources.
Iran’s supported rebels have made progress in Al-Bayda province in recent weeks because they also fought control of Marib’s strategic city in the north.
In February, Hutis increased their efforts to seize Marib, the last toothold government in the north, and the battle had killed hundreds of parties.
Control of oil-rich provinces will strengthen the position of Huthis bargaining in peace talks.
The battle for Marib also raised the worries of humanitarian disaster, because many Yemen had fled to the area to escape the battle in the other part of the country.
The conflict in Yemen blazed in 2014 when Huthis won the capital Sanaa, encouraged the Saudi LED intervention to support internationally recognized governments the following year.
Since then, tens of thousands have been killed and millions are driven to the threshold of starvation in what is called the United Nations for the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg, the new UN envoy for Yemen, arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday to meet Yemen and Saudi officials, mark his first trip to the kingdom since serving early this month.
While the United Nations and Washington encouraged to end the war, Hutis had demanded the reopening of Sanaa airport, closing under the Saudi blockade since 2016, before constipation or negotiations.