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AL-MUKALLA: A Houthi ballistic missile struck a Yemeni government military base in Lahj province on Tuesday as heavy fighting raged across a chain of mountains in the area, with a local official and media reports reporting at least eight soldiers killed or wounded.<\/p>\n
The Aden\u2011based outlet Aden Al\u2011Ghad said the strike on the Nation Shield Forces\u2019 1st Division base in Khor Amira killed five soldiers and wounded three. There was no immediate official casualty toll from government authorities.<\/p>\n
The missile attack came as the Houthis launched fresh assaults on government troops across a chain of mountains in Al-Madaribah Wa Ra\u2019as Al-Arah district in Lahj, after failing to make gains in earlier attacks on the strategic Kahboub Mountain overlooking the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.<\/p>\n
A government official told Arab News that fighting intensified on Tuesday around Al-Aghbara Mountain, deeper inside Al-Madaribah Wa Ra\u2019as Al-Arah district and close to Al-Wazi\u2019iyah district in Taiz province. The Houthis were seeking to cut major supply routes between government-controlled areas in Lahj and Taiz and isolate Kahboub Mountain.<\/p>\n
\u201cFighting in Al-Madaribah and Al-Aghbara is intense, and the Houthi militia has deployed a large number of forces but failed to make any progress,\u201d said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.<\/p>\n
He added that fighting around Kahboub Mountain continued on Tuesday as local government forces, including the Giants Brigades and Nation Shield Forces, backed by local tribesmen, resisted repeated Houthi assaults that have continued for more than two weeks.<\/p>\n
Shortly after seizing control of Bab Al-Mandab on Sept. 10, the Houthis launched attacks on government troops controlling neighboring Kahboub Mountain in an attempt to consolidate their gains around the strategic strait.<\/p>\n
Local military commanders and officials say that capturing Kahboub Mountain would not only help the Houthis consolidate their gains along the Red Sea coast but could also enable them to threaten roads leading toward Aden, the base of Yemen\u2019s internationally recognized government.<\/p>\n
In Taiz, Yemeni army officers said on Tuesday that warplanes struck concentrations of Houthi fighters and military equipment deployed to the battlefield in Hayfan, south of Taiz, killing and wounding a number of fighters and destroying vehicles and other military equipment.<\/p>\n
Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a Yemeni army officer, told Arab News that warplanes carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions shortly after reinforcements arrived at the battlefield from a military base in Al-Salo, triggering large explosions and balls of fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe airstrikes were precise, and we saw smoke and fire billowing from the targeted locations,\u201d Al-Baher said.<\/p>\n
Warplanes also struck a ballistic missile launcher at the Jabal Auman military base north of Taiz, destroying it and thwarting an attempted Houthi missile launch, he said.<\/p>\n
Al-Baher added that the Houthis had used heavily fortified tunnels inside the mountainous base to conceal ballistic missiles and other weapons and had used the facility to launch ballistic missiles at Yemeni government troops on several fronts.<\/p>\n
The Houthis have continued to dispatch fighters and heavy military reinforcements from areas under their control toward Taiz province, in an apparent preparation for another major offensive against the city of Taiz and other government-held districts in the province.<\/p>\n
Al-Baher said government forces in Taiz, which have resisted Houthi assaults for the past decade, were prepared to confront any new attempt to advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are receiving reports of an unusual military buildup toward Taiz. The scale of the reinforcements, including tanks, other military equipment and missiles, is massive, while recruitment is continuing intensively around the clock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Yemeni government military officials and experts told Arab News on Monday that the army had adopted a preemptive strategy focused on striking Houthi gatherings, assembly points and reinforcements before they could reach the battlefield and pose a threat to government forces.<\/p>\n
They said the strategy was adopted after the army concluded that one factor behind the Houthis\u2019 capture of six districts in Taiz and Hodeidah two weeks ago was that the militia had been able to amass large numbers of fighters and military equipment for nearly a month before launching its offensive. Military experts said that disrupting those concentrations earlier could have reduced the Houthis\u2019 ability to mount the offensive that resulted in their capture of the Red Sea areas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n