More than 60 killed in clashes between Yemen’s rebels and government forces

More than 60 people were killed on Saturday as Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia fought Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels in the country’s southwest, according to medical and military sources cited by AFP. The clashes over access to the Red Sea followed an even deadlier Friday, when more than 129 people were reported killed.

Three Yemeni military sources said 26 government soldiers died after hours of fighting. Houthi medical and military sources reported 31 rebel fighters killed. The competing accounts were not independently verified in the report.

A separate missile attack near Taiz killed six civilians traveling on a bus and wounded seven others, a medical source in the government-held city said. A government source attributed the strike to the Houthis. The bus was traveling on the road linking Taiz and Aden, where Yemen’s internationally recognized government took refuge after the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa.

The latest fighting followed the breakdown in July of a ceasefire agreed by the sides in 2022. The report linked the renewed escalation to Yemen’s entry into a regional war triggered by a U.S.-Israeli offensive against Iran in February.

A military commander in Taiz said the coming hours would be decisive after the rebels captured positions near the city the previous day. The commander said reinforcements were arriving from Aden to counter a Houthi offensive aimed at cutting access to the port city of Mocha and advancing toward areas bordering the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Saudi airstrikes targeted positions recently captured by the Houthis in Taiz, a military commander told AFP. The report also said Bab el-Mandeb had gained importance for Saudi oil traffic after Iran closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

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The coming hours will be decisive.