Yemen clashes kill 18 fighters in fresh flare-up

DUBAI: At least 18 combatants have been killed in battles between Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Huthi rebels in the country´s southwest, two military officials told AFP on Thursday.

The clashes on Wednesday were triggered by a Huthi attack on a frontline area between government-controlled parts of Lahij governorate and Huthi-run parts of Taez province, said Mohammed al-Naqib, a spokesperson for the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist group allied with the government.

The attack came despite a lull in fighting that has largely held since the expiry of a six-month truce brokered by the United Nations in April 2022.

Yemeni government “forces succeeded in repelling the attack, but five soldiers were martyred and others wounded”, Naqib told AFP.

A Huthi military official in Taez told AFP that 13 rebels, including a senior commander, were also killed in the fighting.

Yemen´s internationally-recognised government condemned the Huthi offensive as a “treacherous attack”.

In a statement on social media platform X on Wednesday, Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said the counterattack by Yemeni government forces “inflicted heavy losses on (Huthi) militia members”, without specifying a toll.

While hostilities have remained low, sporadic fighting has occasionally flared in parts of the country.