Yemen’s legitimate government accuses Houthi of committing

Yemen's dominant Shiite Houthi rebels said they fired a missile at a Saudi-led coalition warship off Mokha coast in the Red Sea on Wednesday, the rebels media reported. "The navy of the army and popular forces on Wednesday targeted a warship belonging to a Saudi-led coalition while it was carrying out hostile acts off Mokha coast of Taiz province," the rebels-controlled state Saba news agency quoted a Houthi military official as saying.

Meanwhile, the Houthi-run Al Massira TV channel said "the navy forces of the national army fired a missile targeting the enemy coalition warship at the Red Sea early morning of Wednesday." The channel said the missile hit the target accurately. Both Houthi media gave no further details. This is the latest in a series of attacks carried out by Houthis against the coalition in the Red Sea.

On January 30, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported that Houthi militants attacked a warship with three suicide bombing boats off Yemeni Hodeidah port city, causing an explosion that killed two crew members and injured three others.

In October last year, a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer was targeted in the Red Sea in a failed missile attack from Yemen. In response, former U.S. President Barack Obama's administration launched cruise missile strikes on Houthi-controlled coastal radar sites in Yemen.

The coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies, intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 and has since carried out thousands of air strikes against Houthi targets. The war has killed over 10,000 Yemeni people, mostly civilians, and displaced around 2 million, according to the United Nations humanitarian agencies.

On political side, Yemen’s internationally-backed government headed by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi accused coup militias on Sunday of the ongoing use of civilian lives in Taiz as human shields.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdulmalik Al-Mekhlafi said that four civilians were killed and seven others badly injured in a gruesome massacre caused by militia’s indiscriminate bombardment inside civilian neighborhoods.

“This gang (insurgency militias) always target civilians in retribution,” said Mekhlafi.

“What is the opinion of militia supporters, who trade the blood of civilian victims for political gains in today’s Houthi-staged massacre in Bir Pasha, Taiz,” Mekhlafi said in a tweet.

“The Tihama brigade has managed, in a qualitative intelligence operation, to dismantle a ring specialized in planting landmines and explosives in the coastal Mokha city and its countryside, west of Taiz,” a Tihama brigade official told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“They target citizens, national army forces, and popular resistance troops,” the official said regarding the mines placed by putschists.

The brigade was able to arrest five insurgency members east of a Mokha village.

More so, the official confirmed that the Tihama brigade received information on where the landmine makers were taking up base to prepare preparation of IEDs and mines.

In a surprise attack, Tihama forces killed 18 coupists, destroyed five (BM21) missiles.

On the other hand, the brigade suffered the loss of two soldiers and the injury of five others.

This came at a time when National Army troops assigned to the fifth military zone, backed by Arab coalition air forces, staged an attack on remaining Houthi militia pockets in the eastern front of Midi, in the province of Hajjah adjacent to Saudi Arabia.

National army forces are close to ending the combing operations in eastern Midi neighborhoods, after lifting the coup-imposed siege for months, another military source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The source also confirmed that dozens of coup members were either killed or wounded in the clashes eastern districts of Midi.

By clearing the eastern side, including the port, the ark, the citadel and the tunnel networks the battles will then move to the Hiran district.