Yemeni army says 1,729 operations put 1,370 Houthi fighters out of action in a day
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s armed forces said they carried out 1,729 operations against Houthi targets on Thursday and put 1,370 fighters out of action.
The figures were given by Col. Majid al-Nazili, the official spokesman for the armed forces, according to Saba, the state news agency.
He said the operations covered all fronts and battlefields.
Al-Nazili said 300 vehicles, items of equipment and military supplies had been destroyed or disabled, along with military positions.
He described the Houthis as Iran-backed militias. The group rejects that characterisation and describes itself as a national movement.
Yemen Herald found no independent origin for the figures. The tally was carried by Yemen Monitor and by the Saudi newspaper Okaz, but both relayed the same spokesman’s account.
No wire service, international outlet, multilateral body or opposing party has published its own confirmation of the toll.
The Houthis have not issued a casualty figure of their own for Thursday.
The claim follows a week of competing accounts from both sides.
President Rashad al-Alimi announced the start of a military operation to retake Houthi-held territory on 4 October, Arab News and Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
The operation has been named Dawn of Yemen.
Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, publicly backed the operation, FDD’s Long War Journal reported on 6 October.
Government-aligned forces began operations on 4 and 5 October, according to the same report.
On the Bab al-Mandab coast, the Southern Giants Brigades and National Shield Forces were reported to have taken Dhubab airport and to be besieging Houthi positions near the strait.
Al Arabiya reported that government forces took control of the Bab al-Mandab strait.
The Houthis had seized that area in September, Long War Journal said.
The armed forces claimed control of the Red Sea port of Mocha on 5 October.
The Houthis had taken Mocha on 10 September.
Yemeni experts and journalists cited by Long War Journal said government forces did not yet fully control the city, and reported troops around it and fighting nearby.
The Taiz Axis said it had launched five offensives in that governorate.
It claimed about 100 Houthi fighters were killed and 150 wounded on 5 October, along with five drones downed and six vehicles and a tank destroyed.
Long War Journal said those were government-side claims that it had not independently verified.
The coalition said it had destroyed 324 high-value targets and was supporting operations with 100 fighter jets. Those claims are also unverified.
The coalition said its naval forces struck Hudaydah governorate, destroying weapons depots and naval mines.
Operations were also launched in Marib, on a smaller scale than in Taiz.
A strategic offensive toward Sanaa was announced, but Long War Journal reported no fighting there.
Al-Alimi said the aims of the operation were to restore state institutions, liberate Sanaa and end what he called the Houthi coup, Al Arabiya reported on 5 October.
He wrote on X that Yemen would move toward a new dawn of freedom, peace and stability.
The Giants Brigades and Nation’s Shield Forces attacked Houthi positions in Dhubab district, which overlooks the Bab al-Mandab strait, on 5 October, according to military sources cited by Al Arabiya.
Saba said those forces, backed by popular resistance units, had taken Dhubab district and positions around the strait.
Al-Nazili said on X that the two groups control Bab al-Mandab and that Dhubab airport is under government control.
He said hundreds of Houthi fighters were besieged in the Dhubab area, and called on them to surrender.
He also said forces carried out more than 1,000 strikes on 5 October, on targets including artillery and rocket launcher positions.
Al Arabiya renders the spokesman’s name as Majed al-Nuzaily. Saba gives it as Majid al-Nazili.
Al Arabiya said nearly all battlefield claims in its report came from government-side sources, and that it had not independently verified them.
The Houthis made a gain of their own in the same period.
They seized al-Turbah, south of Taiz on the road to Aden, on 4 October, according to Long War Journal.
CNN reported on 4 October that Saudi-backed Yemeni forces had attacked Houthi positions near the Red Sea shipping route.
Al Jazeera reported on 3 October that Yemen’s army had said hundreds of strikes killed 700 people in a day. That figure also came from the army.
Al Jazeera reported on 3 October that the army put total Houthi casualties over a 24-hour period at more than 1,500.
Yemen Herald could not reconcile the army’s daily figures with one another.
Long War Journal said its account was built largely on claims from official accounts and social media posts.
It did not independently corroborate casualty figures or the government’s territorial claims.
Saba did not say how the armed forces arrived at the figure of 1,729 operations.
It did not define what counted as a single operation.
Saba did not say whether the operations were air strikes, artillery fire or ground assaults.
The statement gave no location breakdown for the reported casualties.
Nor did it say over what period the operations were counted, beyond describing them as carried out on Thursday.
Al-Nazili did not report any government casualties.
Thursday’s statement was issued from Aden.
About the Author
