Houthis, pro-govt forces clash in Yemen’s north, east

By Ali Oweida

SANAA

At least 11 people were killed in Monday clashes between Shia Houthi militiamen and pro-government forces in northern and eastern Yemen, according to local military sources.

A Yemeni army source, who spoke anonymously as he was not authorized to speak to media, said clashes had followed a Houthi attack on army positions in the Salatih region of Yemen’s northern Al-Jawf province.

"The attack triggered violent clashes in which six Houthis were killed and several army troops injured," the same source told Anadolu Agency.

In Yemen’s eastern Maarib province, meanwhile, five army troops were killed -- and several more injured -- in clashes with Houthi militiamen in the province’s Serwah region, a second army source told Anadolu Agency.

The source, who did not give his name for security reasons, said a number of Houthi fighters had been killed in the fighting but declined to provide an exact death toll or additional detail.

Houthi spokesmen, for their part, have yet to comment on either report.

Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by chaos since late 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

The conflict escalated in March of last year when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a major air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s embattled Saudi-backed government.

Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in the conflict to date -- more than half of them civilians -- while another three million are believed to have been displaced.