Pro-government forces say eight Houthis killed in Yemen

Aden, Dec 24 Yemen's pro-government forces announced Tuesday that eight Houthi fighters were killed and 15 others wounded during intense clashes sparked in the country's southwestern province of Taiz.

In a brief press statement, the pro-government forces said the Houthis launched a "failed assault" in "an attempt to breach fortified military sites" controlled by the government in the northwestern part of Taiz during the past hours.

Eyewitnesses confirmed seeing Houthi medical teams evacuating the injured from the battleground and transferring them to hospitals outside Taiz.

They also noted that the Houthis dispatched large reinforcements from neighboring provinces, including Ibb, to bolster offensive operations against the government forces in Taiz, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Houthis have not issued any official statement regarding the ongoing clashes in Taiz. However, pro-Houthi media outlets accused the pro-government forces of "aligning with foreign powers, including the United States and Israel," in a broader campaign against Yemen.

Yemen has been in a state of an uneasy calm since October 2, 2022, when the government and the Houthi group failed to renew and expand a UN-brokered truce.

Despite years of diplomatic efforts, the two sides have yet to reach an agreement to end the conflict, which the UN estimates has killed hundreds of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced early Tuesday that it had intercepted a missile launched by Houthi forces in Yemen.

The missile, which was aimed at Tel Aviv, triggered air-raid sirens across central and southern Israel, forcing millions of residents to seek shelter just before 2 am local time (0000 GMT).

"A projectile launched from Yemen was intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory," the IDF said in a statement, adding that the sirens were activated as a precaution due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception.

Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency service, said that a woman was seriously injured after falling while rushing to a shelter.

This missile attack came just a day after Houthi forces launched a drone strike on Israel, which was also intercepted, according to the IDF. The Houthis have sporadically targeted Israel since October in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

In retaliation, Israel has launched several large-scale airstrikes on Yemen, with the most recent one occurring on Thursday.

Source: IANS