A Houthi-run militia training center is threatening to further destroy civility and the livelihood of locals in Yemen’s central west Al Mahwit governorate.
Locals reported that child soldiers were being enrolled in the center as well.
“Houthis coupist militias transformed the headquarters of an electricity provider in the Hafash district into a training center for fighters. Recruits are put through extensive sectarian and combat training there before deploying to battlefronts,” Al Mahwit’s official news center reported.
“Led by officer Abu al-Jibril al-Thari, Houthis are training cadets in a hangar, which was formerly used by residents of the area to house electricity generators in the village of Jabal Naaman, one of the largest villages in the region,” it added, stressing that the situation has spread anxieties among the locals.
The majority of conscripts are young school children who were brainwashed out of education and enrolled into the sectarian effort. Little do they know that Houthi battlefront formations often employ child soldiers as human shields or use them as cannon fodder on frontlines.
The Iran-backed Houthis have devised a plan for transforming schools and other civilian premises into areas they overrun into training centers, militant housing and operation rooms.
Often, Houthi gunmen shelter themselves during Arab coalition air raids in civilian buildings. They later fabricate allegations about the coalition hitting “noncombatant targets.”
In parallel, demining teams affiliated with the Yemeni army’s Giants Brigades announced that they have successfully defused projectiles, mines and highly-explosive devices left behind by Houthi militias south of Hodeidah city.
“Engineering teams started drilling operations and found large rocket-propelled grenades and large quantities of improvised explosive devices planted by the militias and which can be remotely detonated,” the brigade’s news outlet said, adding that other planted mines were dismantled.
Two 500-kg rockets were found, another five 80-kg explosives and different types of mines were also found and dismantled. According to the news outlet, had the arms been left unchecked, they were sufficient enough to cause massive damage.