Yemen: Houthi Tank Rams 12 Citizens in Baidaa

Fighters of the Southern Popular Resistance stand on a tank in Yemen's southern port city of Aden May 10, 2015. (File Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
Fighters of the Southern Popular Resistance stand on a tank in Yemen's southern port city of Aden May 10, 2015. (File Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
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Yemen: Houthi Tank Rams 12 Citizens in Baidaa

Fighters of the Southern Popular Resistance stand on a tank in Yemen's southern port city of Aden May 10, 2015. (File Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
Fighters of the Southern Popular Resistance stand on a tank in Yemen's southern port city of Aden May 10, 2015. (File Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)

Houthi insurgents have committed a new crime in Yemen’s Baydaa province where a BMP tank ran over a vehicle carrying 12 people, killing seven passengers.

"The vehicle of Saif Mohammed Ali al-Arabji was run over on Thursday by the Houthi militias’ BMP tank at Ahram point in Radaa,” the media center of resistance in Baydaa said in a brief statement.

The statement published on Facebook named the seven dead passengers as Saif Mohammed Ali al-Arabji, Latf Saif Mohammed Ali al-Arabji, Mabkhout al-Qishani al-Arabji, Saeq Mohammed Waseea, Saleh Mohammed Waseea, Moeen Ali al-Makroum and Mirdas Mohammad Ali al-Arabji.

The center also reported the injury of "five other citizens who remain in critical condition."

In other news, National Army website “SeptemberNet” reported that 17 Houthi militants, including one field commander known as Ismael al-Washali, were killed and 20 others wounded during an Arab coalition air raid waged successfully on a training camp in Dhamar province.

Military sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that a number of militants were killed during air raids of the Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy on several insurgent sites in Nahm, east of Sana’a. In addition, Coalition fighter jets raided several militant positions in Saada, the Houthi stronghold, including military sites and targets in Haidan district.

Over the past 48 hours, the raids were concentrated on Saada province, and the National Army shelled several Houthi sites in the Muthab district of al-Safra governorate. According to the source, Houthi militants were killed and injured during clashes that lasted several hours in various areas of Serwah, Maerib.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, spokesman of legitimate forces in the Karsh and al-Shurijiyya fronts Antar al-Subaihi said heavy clashes pitted Houthi militias against the national army and the southern resistance forces, which continued the liberation of al-Rahida area’s al-Sahi village.

“The forces have fully controlled the strategic sites north of liberated al-Shreijah, north of Lahj, in addition, they liberated the remainder of the Shivan, Qarduf and al-Taweelah mountain range in al-Aloob north of al-Shreijah, under the command of Colonel Mohammed Farid Hassan and Lt. Fadl Hasan,” said Subaihi.

He reiterated that they will not stop until al-Rahida area is fully secured and liberated.

He explained that National Army and the Popular Resistance forces launched a sudden attack on several Houthi sites from several axes, giving them an advantage, with Houthis not being able to respond, escaping the area and leaving behind many bodies, weapons, and ammunition.

"A number of Houthi militias were killed and others injured, in addition to the capture of eight militants,” Subaihi added.  



Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
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Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival Rapid Support Forces who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the RSF as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

"Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation," the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser's office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to "inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja", AFP reported.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his "indescribable joy" at seeing the army enter the city after "months of terror".

"At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you," the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The RSF control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million -- creating what the UN says is the world's largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref -- where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge -- Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family's ordeal might soon be at an end.

"We'll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering," she told AFP.