Yemeni Forces Seize Northern Provincial Capital From Rebels

The pro-government forces captured Harad, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the frontier, on Thursday with support from warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition, an official said.

Heavy clashes in Marib province, east of rebel-held Sanaa, left 12 pro-government fighters dead and 30 wounded, along with “many victims among the rebels”, according to military sources.

In a rare positive gesture on Wednesday, the Houthis and fighters from the so-called Southern Resistance, who are allied with Hadi, exchanged hundreds of prisoners early on Thursday, following delays by local tribesmen angry at the exclusion of relatives from the deal, an official involved in the swap said.

Members of Yemen’s two warring sides say that peace talks in Switzerland have been indefinitely halted.

“We have successfully completed the process of exchanging the prisoners”, AFP quoted him as saying.

The advancing force is now just a few kilometres away from the Red Sea port of Midi, which has been under rebel control since 2010, military sources said.

The swap was slowed down by concerns over security along the route linking the two exchange points, Rabbash said.

But the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said the third day of peace talks had produced “a major step forward” on the humanitarian front – agreement on aid for the war-torn city of Taiz – that would pave the way to further agreements on aid and other issues in coming days.

The Saudi-led coalition supporting Hadi accused Huthi rebels of flouting the ceasefire immediately, and acknowledged that it had “responded to these violations”.

An officer said rebels in Mass “did not adhere to the ceasefire” and used the base to fire at pro-Hadi forces.

On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to launch deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.