SANAA, 16 November 2021, (TON): Officials told media “at least 11 Houthis, including a field military leader, were killed during the last three days in heavy fighting with government forces in flashpoints in Yemen’s western city of Hodeidah.”

Inspired by their opponents’ sudden withdrawal from a large swath of land in Hodeidah, the Houthis, commanded by Ali Nasser Jahaf, the chief security officer of Hodeidah’s Zabid district, mounted an assault on the Joint Forces in Al-Haima, the loyalists’ last bastion in the province.

Local officials said that the Houthis faced stiff resistance on the ground from the Tehama Resistance and the Giants Brigades and came under heavy aerial bombardment by Arab coalition warplanes.

Jahaf was killed in the fighting that subsided on Monday after the Houthis halted their assault.

The Joint Forces announced that dozens of Houthis had been killed or wounded and that several armed vehicles and tanks were destroyed in the fighting north of Al-Haima in Khokha district.

Yemen’s officials hailed the role of the coalition’s warplanes in stopping Houthi advances in Hodeidah.

A local official, who requested anonymity, told media “there is great air support from the coalition’s warplanes. Without it, the Houthis would have seized control of Al-Haima.”