Houthi rebels register gains in southern Yemen: Source

By Murad al-Arifi</p> <p>SANAA (AA) – The Houthi rebel group has made significant gains in Yemen’s Al-Dali and Al-Bayda provinces following clashes with government forces, a pro-government source said Wednesday.</p> <p>“The Houthis have taken the Dhoran region a day after overrunning wide swathes of the Al-Hashaa directorate [in Al-Dali province],” the source told Anadolu Agency anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media.</p> <p>According to the source, the Houthis are now fighting pro-government forces in the Al-Hashaa directorate’s Al-Masharih district.</p> <p>The Houthis, the source went on to note, had also captured the strategic Al-Awd region in the Qatabah directorate (located east of Al-Hashaa) after several pro-government officers defected to the rebel group.</p> <p>In Yemen’s central Al-Bayda province, meanwhile, the Houthis managed to capture the Dhi Naim directorate — for the first time since 2015 — after days of clashes with pro-government forces, the source said.</p> <p>According to Houthi-run media outlets, the rebel group has recently succeeded in capturing 20 strategic positions across the Dhi Naim directorate.</p> <p>Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.</p> <p>The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains. </p> <p>The ongoing conflict has wrecked much of the impoverished country’s basic infrastructure, prompting the UN to describe the situation there as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.