(MENAFN- Arab Times) Shiite rebels in Yemen's capital have raided dozens of homes of political opponents and local NGO workers, claiming they are affiliated with the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda, security officials said Monday. The officials, who are neutral in a conflict that has splintered the security forces, said the raids began a day earlier. Pro-government forces backed by Saudi-led airstrikes have driven the rebels, known as Houthis, from much of the country's south in recent weeks, but the rebels still hold the capital, Sanaa, which they seized nearly a year ago. The officials said that last week the Houthis detained at least 20 people, one of whom works for the UN, near the capital's presidential palace. Houthi officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Also Monday, mortar rounds fired by the rebels killed four civilians and wounded six in Yemen's third largest city of Taiz, medical officials and witnesses said.
The exiled Yemeni government in Saudi Arabia declared Taiz a disaster zone last week. Since then, the city's al- Radwah hospital has stopped admitting patients due to a severe lack of medical resources, officials at the hospital told the Associated Press, leaving Taiz with only six working hospitals out of 21. All officials and witnesses requested anonymity because they are not authorized to brief journalists or for fear of reprisals. Yemen's conflict pits the Iran-supported Houthis and allied army units against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Islamic militants and forces loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
A Saudi-led and U.S.-backed coalition has been striking the rebels and their allies since March. The conflict has killed some 2,000 civilians, according to the United Nations. Yemen's warring factions braced for a key battle in a central province, where victory could allow pro-government forces to move rapidly north into the heartland of the country's Shiite rebels. Security officials from both sides said the focus was now on Marib, an oil-rich province that supplies the rebel-held capital of Sanaa with electricity and fuel, after months of combat and airstrikes that have killed some 2,000 civilians, according to the UN.
Pro-government forces have recently tightened their grip on the province's capital, also called Marib, while the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, have consolidated their positions on its outskirts, digging trenches and laying mines in nearby Jawf, security officials from both sides and witnesses said. If pro-government forces manage to push the rebels out of Marib, they could potentially advance rapidly across Jawf, a flat, desert province bordering Saudi Arabia that is also a gateway to Saada, the rebels' northern stronghold, where Saudi planes have been dropping flyers urging people to support the "legitimate" government of internationally-recognized president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Saudi Arabian forces have made repeated small incursions across the border with Yemen in response to attacks since the start of airstrikes against Houthi forces on March 26, the Saudi-led coalition said on Sunday. Attacks on Saudi border positions by the Houthis or their allies, army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have increased since coalitionbacked forces regained control of Aden last month and advanced northwards. "Sometimes you have to move and not be static on your defensive line. You move, find where the attack comes from, find the target. It happens from time to time but is not significant," coalition spokesman Brigadier Ahmed Asseri said. Over a dozen Saudi soldiers and border guards have been killed in shelling, fighting or missile attacks on the frontier since the airstrikes began, while coalition jets have caused hundreds of Houthi casualties, Asseri has previously said. The kingdom fought a brief border war with the Houthis in 2009-10, in which both sides briefly took control of patches of each other's territory.
Riyadh accuses the group of acting on behalf of Iran, which it and Tehran both deny. "We don't have the intention to go deep across the Yemeni border, but sometimes because of difficult terrain, mountains or caves where they can hide, we have to find their positions, clear them and then get back to our positions," he said in a telephone interview. Such incursions are made as responses to Houthi attacks on Saudi frontier positions and typically go only a hundred or so metres into Yemeni territory, but have gone "to a maximum of one or two kilometres" he said. A major hospital in Yemen's rebel-held capital is on the verge of shutting down due to a supply shortage caused by a progovernment coalition blockade, Save the Children has warned. "Critical fuel shortages and a lack of medical supplies could force the Al- Sabeen Hospital to shut its doors within 48 hours," the humanitarian organisation said late Sunday. The hospital supported by Save the Children is the main facility for children and pregnant women in the area, and serves an estimated three million people, the organisation said in a statement. The Saudi-led coalition, which mounted an air campaign against Iran-backed rebels late March in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, has imposed a blockade on areas controlled by insurgents. The hospital was reliant on the Red Sea port of Hodeida for 90 percent of its imports, Save the Children said.
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