The Saudi Arabian government confirmed reports that circulated earlier today about the arrival of Sudanese troops to join the Arab coalition in support of Yemeni president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi who is seeking to win back cities overran by Houthi rebels a year ago.
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Thirteen Houthi militants and forces loyal to deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed and 27 others injured in clashes with fighters of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and airstrikes waged by Arab coalition aircraft on their positions in the southern Yemeni governorate of Taiz.
At the time, Sudanese officials said Khartoum was prepared to send up to 6,000 ground troops to join Gulf forces in Yemen.
Yemeni Army forces backed by Houthi rebels shot down a Saudi warplane in the northern province of Sadaa, the official Saba news agency reported on Thursday.
Yemen’s al-Qaida branch overran Mukalla, the capital of sprawling Hadramawt province, in April.
The leader of Yemen’s Houthis has urged all followers to head to war fronts to repel what he called invaders, a reference to an Arab coalition that intervened to overturn the rule of his Iranian-allied group over large parts of the country. They have since gender-segregated public spaces there and publicly killed and flogged people, including on charges of “witchcraft”, Mukalla residents told The Associated Press last week.
Shiite fighters, known as Houthis, gather at the site of a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, October 16, 2015.
Ground commanders in Yemen have previously complained of slow communication with the military leadership in Riyadh.
Meanwhile in the massive desert province of Jawf, Saudi airstrikes killed 13 Houthis, neutral security officials there said.
A first attempt to hold peace talks in Geneva in June between the pro-government forces and Huthi rebels collapsed without the warring parties even sitting down in the same room.
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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media while witnesses declined to give their names for fear of reprisals.
