Top Yemen commander killed as rebels hit back

Army deputy chief of staff Major General Ahmad Saif Al Yafii was killed by a heat-seeking missile on the outskirts of the coastal town of Mokha, the source told AFP. Another 18 soldiers as well as 21 rebels were killed in the clashes between Iran-backed Huthi insurgents and a Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government. 

More than 50 others from the two sides were wounded in the fighting, which saw the coalition carry out air strikes as the rebels reached the eastern outskirts of Mokha. The army had overrun Mokha on February 10. 

Tuesday’s clashes were a major setback for an offensive launched by government forces in January to try to recapture Yemen’s 450 kilometre Red Sea coastline, which had previously been almost entirely in rebel hands. Government commanders had talked confidently of pushing north towards the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, a vital conduit for UN-supervised aid deliveries to rebel-held areas. 

The loyalists’ Feb capture of Mokha was their biggest success in months. Despite nearly two years of military support from a Saudi-led coalition, government forces are still largely restricted to the south and areas along the Saudi border. 

The rebels still hold the capital Sanaa and much of the central and northern highlands as well as the coast around Hodeida. Before the 19th Century, Mokha was Yemen’s main port and export hub for coffee grown in the highlands and its historical symbolism meant it was fiercely fought over.