Taiz military command says about 100 Houthi fighters killed as Houthis dispute account
Yemen Herald News 
TAIZ, Yemen — Yemen’s Taiz Military Axis said about 100 Houthi fighters were killed and 150 wounded in five operations across the governorate over 24 hours.
The figures were issued on Monday by the media centre of the Taiz Military Axis, the government command responsible for the front.
Houthi forces dispute the account. Yemen Herald could not independently verify it.
The command said the operations targeted positions on the Al-Arbaeen front north of Taiz city, Al-Aqroud to the south, Al-Anin and Jabal Habashi to the west, and Al-Bireen on the outskirts of Al-Kadaha.
Five Houthi drones were downed, according to the statement. It said six military vehicles and a tank were destroyed or disabled.
The command also said government troops retook Jabal al-Manzara, al-Asharif and Dhiban in southern Taiz.
On the Al-Aqroud front the command said troops pushed Houthi fighters from several positions after an attack launched at midday, destroying a tank and a military vehicle and seizing a second vehicle.
No independent account of the Taiz fighting has been published. The Houthis have not confirmed the casualty figures or the territorial claims.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, rejected the government’s battlefield accounts. He said Houthi units had held their positions.
Saree said Houthi forces carried out attacks in Al-Jawf, Marib, Ras al-Ara and Al-Suqiya. He claimed more than 200 casualties among opposing forces.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to that claim.
The Taiz operations form part of a wider offensive the government calls Dawn of Yemen.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, announced the operation on Oct. 5. Fighting had begun the previous day.
Al-Alimi said Yemen would move “toward a new dawn of freedom, peace and stability,” crediting the armed forces and what he called the support of brothers and friends.
He gave the objectives as restoring state institutions, taking Sanaa and ending what the government calls the Houthi coup.
Government forces say they have taken the Bab al-Mandab strait, the Dhubab district and its airport, the port city of Mokha, and the road linking Dhubab to Mokha.
Mokha lies about 45 kilometres north of Dhubab. Bab al-Mandab is the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, on the route between the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.
Dhubab sits in south-western Taiz governorate, on the coastal routes running toward Mokha and Bab al-Mandab.
Mokha is a Red Sea port in western Taiz governorate. Houthi forces have attacked vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since late 2023.
Al-Turbah, about 75 kilometres south of Taiz city, is the administrative centre of the Al-Shamayatayn district and one of the main towns of the Al-Hujariah region.
The town is one of the governorate’s main links to Aden, Lahj and the southern coast, a role it took on as other roads became difficult to use.
Col. Majed al-Nuzaili, the armed forces spokesman, said forces executed a flanking manoeuvre to reach Bab al-Mandab.
He said hundreds of Houthi fighters surrounded at Dhubab were called on to surrender, and that some left by boat.
Al-Nuzaili said the Giants Brigades seized Bab al-Mandab and the Dhubab military airport, and that forces cut the Dhubab–Mokha road.
The Giants Brigades are a southern Yemeni force that has fought on the Red Sea coast in earlier campaigns.
Al-Nuzaili said more than 1,000 strikes had been carried out against Houthi artillery, rocket launchers, fortifications and supply lines.
Those claims have not been confirmed by the Houthis and could not be independently verified.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said 100 fighter jets were providing air support around the clock.
Al-Malki said 324 targets the coalition described as high-value had been destroyed. Air operations against moving targets were continuing, he said.
Al-Masirah, the Houthi-run broadcaster, reported strikes on Sanaa. The Houthi-run health ministry reported civilian casualties from airstrikes.
Fighting in Taiz had intensified before the offensive was named.
Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Oct. 2 that clashes had opened a front in Samea district and continued at Al-Bayda and Al-Mansoura in the Al-Wazi’iyah district of western Taiz.
Eastern fronts named in that account included Bani Bakari, Humeir, Al-Aqroud, Al-Arbaeen, Al-Kuraifat, Aqabat Munif, Al-Tashrifat and Al-Shaqab.
Al-Nuzaili said dozens of Houthi fighters were killed or wounded at Samea after ground strikes. Government forces at that point claimed hundreds of Houthi casualties without giving figures.
The same report said Houthi forces fired 23 mortar shells at villages in Al-Dhabab, west of Taiz.
Asharq Al-Awsat described the clashes as the fiercest in Taiz in years.
Lt. Gen. Taher al-Aqili, the defence minister, chaired a military meeting on the fighting with Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Basr, the deputy chief of staff.
The United Nations humanitarian response plan for Yemen, published in March, puts the number of people needing assistance at more than 22 million.
The plan records 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure. It counts more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.
The plan lists 5.2 million internally displaced people across the country.
It seeks 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of those in need.
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