A senior military commander with the Southern Armed Forces died during clashes with Houthi fighters in the northern province of Al-Jawf. His military unit announced the death in an official statement on Tuesday.
The Southern Armed Forces also stated they had repositioned troops away from Zuqar Airport and the Bab al-Mandab area in western Taiz province. Officials said the redeployment was necessary to secure the interim capital, Aden, and adjacent provinces.
These events followed reports that the Yemeni army had intercepted a wave of Houthi drones aimed at Marib. The central city holds the largest population of displaced people in the country.
Violence hit civilians hard in Taiz province. The state-run Saba news agency reported six injuries, including two children and two women, from Houthi artillery shelling and sniper attacks. Official figures showed that three members of a single family, a mother and two siblings, were wounded when a projectile struck near their home in the al-Zahra neighbourhood.
Local authorities confirmed more casualties in the same province. A 35-year-old woman suffered gunshot wounds from Houthi snipers on al-Afham Hill in the al-Aqroud area, south of Taiz, and two men were hurt by artillery fire on the city’s outskirts.
In Al-Jawf, the Yemeni Interior Ministry reported that a landmine blew up beneath a civilian vehicle in the Khab wa al-Shaaf district, wounding two children and a woman.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV broadcast reports of airstrikes hitting Sanaa, blaming Saudi Arabia for the raids. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed insurgent forces shot down a Saudi CH-4 armed reconnaissance drone over Al-Jawf.
Neither Saudi officials nor the internationally recognised Yemeni government responded immediately to the claim about the drone.
Yemen has suffered through civil war since 2014. The conflict escalated when the Iran-backed Houthi movement seized Sanaa and other provinces, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year.
