Yemeni army claims 1,540 Houthi casualties as fighting intensifies in Taiz
The Yemeni government has claimed that 1,540 Houthi fighters were killed or wounded during the past 24 hours as the battles raging in the southwestern governorate of Taiz intensified.
The Yemeni army said it carried out 474 operations against Houthi positions, reinforcements, command centres and military capabilities across several fronts, with most of the reported casualties concentrated in Taiz.
Military spokesman Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said that the raids included warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and rocket launchers.
The latest claims come as Taiz heats up as one of the main battlegrounds in Yemen's renewed conflict.
Government forces have reported repeated clashes across the province in recent weeks, including around Bani Bakari, Maqbanah, al-Aqroud and the northern and eastern approaches to Taiz city.
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On Saturday, Yemeni government forces closed the al-Houban crossing, a key road linking Houthi-controlled al-Houban with the government-held city of Taiz.
The Yemeni military has said that the crossing was shut for security reasons following what it described as an attempted Houthi infiltration, attacks near the road and a military buildup.
The crossing had been closed for nine years before reopening to civilians in 2024 for "humanitarian reasons", Al Jazeera reported, quoting a military spokesperson.
Its closure again cuts one of the important routes connecting territory controlled by the two sides.
The closure comes as government forces say they are trying to prevent the Houthis from advancing towards strategic roads and highland positions around Taiz.
Earlier this week, the Yemeni military announced that it had carried out 71 raids against Houthi forces in Taiz.
The latest escalation follows the collapse in July of a period of relative calm that began with a UN-brokered truce in April 2022.
In September, the Houthis advanced along some parts of the western coastline of Yemen, including around the strategic port of Mocha.
Government-aligned forces subsequently said they had stabilised several front lines and recaptured strategic positions.
The battles have resulted in new displacements of people.
In September, at least 198,000 people had been displaced amid the renewed hostilities, as per Yemen's Executive Unit for Internally Displaced Persons Camps Management.
Taiz topped the list of provinces hosting displaced people, with 13,925 families comprising 97,529 people distributed across 15 districts, the body said on Thursday.
The conflict began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and expanded their control across much of northern Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.
Taiz has remained strategically important because of its location between Yemen's highlands and the Red Sea coast.
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