Yemen’s army achieve advance in both Sanaa and Taiz

Yemeni forces backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition have made more territorial gains along the Red Sea coast in the Taiz province, an army spokesman told Gulf News on Monday. Abdo Abdullah Majili, a spokesman for the Yemeni army, said that government troops kicked Al Houthi militants out of Al Ameri mountain range and bombed Al Houthi forces retreating down the mountain.
They have also booted out the rebels from Al Mansoura mountain in Al Waziya, he said. Dozens of government troops and Al Houthi militants have been killed in four days of raging fighting along the western coastal regions near the strategic Bab Al Mandab strait.
Fighting commenced on Friday when government forces launched a night-time military operation, named Golden Arrow, to liberate the coastal areas on the Red Sea, including the Mocha seaport, an infamous arms supply route to Al Houthis.
On Sunday, a senior army commander told Gulf News that his forces completely liberated the Dhobab district as it pushed ahead towards other nearby regions. The forces slowed their advances on Sunday as to enable explosive experts to defuse hundreds of mines laid by the defeated Al Houthis.
Majili said battles are now taking place around 35km south of Mocha and dozens of rebel forces have been killed by coalition fighter jets and navy bombardment as they advance towards Mocha. Majili also confirmed media reports that the Saudi-led coalition has recently dispatched modern heavy and medium arms to the battlefields through the port city of Aden.
“The coalition is providing government forces with massive logistic and air support,” Majili said. In the southern province of Shabwa, the Yemen Army Media centre said on Monday that the army soldiers defused more than 600 mines from the recently liberated Al Saq region.
The army recently launched another offensive in Shabwa to push Al Houthis out of their last bastions in the oil-rich province, including the Bayhan district. Similar fierce clashes were reported on Monday in the city of Taiz where government forces continue efforts to liberate a strategic road that supplies the rebels with arms from the western port city of Hodeida.
 The Yemeni Vice President General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar has reaffirmed that the “Houthi party represents Iran’s claws in Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula and the region.” Ahmar also said that Yemenis cannot target Mekkah or Riyadh “the nation’s cradle.”  The general made this statement during his visit with the Saudi-led Arab coalition in Ma’rib the Nahem front east of Sanaa.
Also during his visit, Ahmar expressed his congratulations on the Yemeni army’s victories, backed by the coalition’s efforts. Referring to the victories, Ahmar said that they are “in order to complete the liberation of and to restore the capital Sanaa, and to save it from Houthi militia corruption.” 
Meanwhile, the vice president noted that all areas bordering Sanaa were not a platform for the Houthis and will never be. At this point Ahmar called on the tribe members of these areas to actively participate in the “liberation battle.”
Also, Ahmar directed a message to the children of Sanaa, the free members of the armed forces, the General People’s Congress (headed by ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh) and all political and social elements.
In his message, Ahmar demanded these sides to “be warned and remain alert from the Houthi’s backstabbing” whom he said, “does not exclude any one and targets houses, camps, schools and places of worship.”
On the military side, Yemeni soldiers killed two tribal fighters and wounded 18 anti-government protesters in the latest clashes in a week of unrest that has raised fears of a descent into all-out civil war, a report says. 
In an escalation of the violence to outside the capital, two pro-opposition tribesmen were killed in the mountainous region of Naham, a clan sheikh said, after the army shelled the area where the armed tribesmen were centred and clashing with loyalist troops. 
Soldiers used live rounds against protesters in Sana’a as they marched out of their protest camp into the streets of the capital. Eighteen people were wounded and medics said two were in critical condition. Doctors denied a television report that one protester had been killed. 
About 17 people were killed on Saturday when government forces attacked the main opposition protest camp in Sana’a, said witnesses and medics, bringing the death toll in five days of fighting to around 100. Analysts fear that a slide towards anarchy in the unruly Arabian Peninsula state could create opportunities for a wing of al-Qaeda based there and endanger oil shipment routes through the Red Sea. 
Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh unexpectedly returned to the country on Friday after a three-month stay in neighbouring Saudi Arabia recuperating from an assassination attempt in June. 
His arrival in Sana’a came despite the entreaties of Western and Gulf states for the veteran leader to end his 33 years in power following an eight-month revolt. 
Saleh, 69, has not yet announced his intentions since coming back to Yemen, but said on Saturday he was "carrying the dove of peace and the olive branch". He is expected to give a speech on state television later on Sunday.