The Yemeni Army on Thursday gained more control over the east of Hodeida, in Western Yemen, after confronting Houthi militias inside the Hodeidah University, south the city.
As Yemeni troops continue to advance in the western coastal front and the suburbs of the city, military sources confirmed that Houthis lost more than 60 fighters, including high-ranking officials, as a result of fighting that raged over the control of the strategic "Kilo16 road" in Hodeidah.
On Wednesday, Yemeni troops cut off the "Kilo16 road," the only supply route linking Houthi-controlled areas in northern provinces with the port city of Hodeidah. Meanwhile, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the center of the Baqem directorate, the Houthi stronghold in the northwestern Saada province, was now in the range of government forces.
The sources said Yemeni troops, backed by Coalition forces, were capable to capture an underground communications room operated by Houthis in the province of Saada.
The commander of the 84th Infantry Brigade Brigadier General Raddad al-Hashemi said: "The Yemeni National Army elements found a communications room and operations as they advanced in the field in the Bujbara Valley. It was cut underground and connected to a mountain cave, consisting of five rooms, each room was designed for a specific hostile function".
He added that the Houthi militias used this secret room to carry out its hostile operations and to communicate with its terrorist elements in various locations, and was used to hold meetings for its leaders.
Meanwhile, informed western sources expected that UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths heads to Sana’a next Sunday to meet with Houthi officials, following his visit this week to Muscat where he met with Omani officials and representatives from the Ansar Allah movement.
The Saudi-backed alliance had renewed an offensive to control Hodeidah from the Houthis after an attempt to hold peace talks in Geneva has failed last Saturday.
Separately, a Saudi woman was injured in a rocket attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in a village in the southern border region of Najran.
Capt. Abdul Khaliq Ali Al-Qahtani, spokesman of the Civil Defense Directorate in Najran region, said that the Civil Defense received information on Thursday morning about the fall of a rocket fired by Houthis from across the border in a suburban village in Najran.
