At least 18 combatants have been killed in battles between Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country’s southwest, two military officials told AFP on Thursday.
The clashes on Wednesday were triggered by a Houthi attack on a frontline area between government-controlled parts of Lahij governorate and Houthi-run parts of Taez province, said Mohammed al-Naqib, a spokesperson for the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist group allied with the government.
The attack came despite a lull in fighting that has largely held since the expiry of a six-month truce brokered by the United Nations in April 2022.
Yemeni government “forces succeeded in repelling the attack, but five soldiers were martyred and others wounded,” Naqib told AFP.