TUNIS, September 13. /TASS/. Saudi Arabia has delivered 58 airstrikes on Yemen in the past 24 hours, spokesman for the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah (the Houthis) Yahya Saria said.
According to the Houthi spokesman, coming under strikes were the Taiz, Lahej, al-Jawf, Hajjah, Al-Bayda, and Saada governorates. Strikes were delivered by F-15 fighter jet that took off from the Khamis Mushait airbase in southwestern Saudi Arabia. No details of potential damage or casualties were given.
The armed confrontation between the Saudi-backed government forces and Houthi rebels has been continuing in Yemen since August 2014. The situation deteriorated dramatically this summer. The Houthi rebels delivered a massive missile strike on the Red Sea port of Mokha on August 14, resulting in the port’s complete halt. In early September, the Houthis launched an offensive in the southwest of the country. Along with ground operations, the Houthis began delivering missile and drones strikes on the Red Sea coastal areas and the vicinity of the city of Taiz, seeking to cut off approaches to Mokha and advance toward areas adjacent to the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Saria said on Friday that on September 3, the rebel movement Ansar Allah has launched an operation on Yemen’s western coast to push Saudi forces out of the region. In his words, it was prompted by "Saudi-backed attacks on people and villages on the western coast that have been continuing for years." Hizam al-Assad, a political bureau member of Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement Ansar Allah, told TASS on September 12 that the Houthis had completed a military operation in western Yemen to establish control over territories and districts adjacent to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. In his words, shipping traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is proceeding as normal, "and there is no cause for concern.".