Before Eid Al-Adha, Houthi militia terrorizes Yemeni people and besieges Taiz
The Houthi militia has amassed new fighters, heavy artillery, and military vehicles outside the Yemeni city of Taiz, in a move that threatens the city’s residents, as military officials and residents prepare to address abuses by the Houthi militia that have decided to spoil the joy of millions of Yemenis during Eid al-Adha.
Houthi terrorism
Abdulbaset al-Bahar, a Yemeni military officer in Taiz, said: The Houthis deployed additional forces and equipment on all fronts outside the strategic city and intelligence reports indicated that they were preparing to launch more aggressive attacks and shelling on the city and government-controlled military sites. “They brought in significant military reinforcements to Taiz, including fighters, military vehicles, armored personnel carriers, heavy machine guns and night-vision sniper rifles,” he said. Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, has been under a stifling siege since early 2015 after the Houthis closed its main entrances, prevented people from leaving or entering the city and prevented vital humanitarian aid from reaching thousands of needy residents, under a UN-brokered truce that went into effect. From Sana’a airport allowed fuel ships to enter Hodeida ports, and UN-sponsored discussions about opening roads in Taiz reached a deadlock as the Houthis refused to cooperate and insisted on opening only small and unpaved roads leading into and out of Taiz.
Truce violation
The newspaper quoted a Yemeni security source who confirmed that the Iranian-backed militia killed seven civilians and 13 soldiers and injured at least 100 other civilians since April 2, where the Houthis violated the truce conditions on 2849 occasions through missile attacks, drones, and the deployment of forces. He added, “Our information says that the militias are planning to launch attacks during the days of Eid, that is next week,” adding that these statements came after explosions, yesterday morning, Monday, rocked the western and northern outskirts of the city of Taiz after Yemeni government forces repelled a Houthi attack and responded to the shelling of their positions near a military air defense base. The Houthis used tanks and artillery fire to shell an air defense base in northwest Taiz, before sending troops to control the Houthi ground areas, and separately stated that they fired back at the Houthi forces, at a meeting in Riyadh on Sunday, Othman al-Majli, a member of the Presidential Command Council, told the US envoy to Yemen, Steven Fagin, that the Houthis were responsible for fueling the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, leading to the displacement of thousands of Yemenis.
