DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Ten Yemeni
soldiers were killed in an overnight rebel attack near the blockaded city of
Taez,
Yemen’s government said on Monday, calling it a “dangerous escalation”
after a months-long ceasefire.
اضافة اعلان
The assault, which also left several soldiers
wounded, was aimed at cutting off a key route to the southwestern city of about
2 million, the government said.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have blocked main
roads into Taez since 2015, the same year that a Saudi-led coalition intervened
in the conflict.
Yemen’s warring parties have been observing a
ceasefire since April, bringing a drastic reduction in hostilities although
small-scale fighting has continued.
The Taez attack was a “blatant challenge to all
initiatives and efforts seeking to end the war and achieve peace”, Yemen’s
internationally recognized government said in a statement.
It was “an attempt to undermine efforts to expand
and extend the humanitarian truce”, it added.
Military sources said the rebels, who hold much of
Yemen including the capital Sanaa, were trying to cut off the road linking Taez
with government-controlled Lahj.
The rebels infiltrated army sites and clashed with
government soldiers in a battle fought on multiple fronts, they said. No detail
was available on rebel casualties.
Also on Monday, 16 human rights groups made a joint
appeal for the Houthis to open roads into Taez to ease growing humanitarian
problems in Yemen’s third-biggest city.
“Dangerous and poorly maintained mountain roads ...
are the only connection between Taez city’s besieged population and the rest of
the world,” said Michael Page, deputy
Middle East and North Africa director at
Human Rights Watch.
“Opening the main roads would help immensely to
alleviate the suffering of a population that has been in near-total isolation
for seven years.”
Holding talks about opening the roads was one of the
conditions of the UN-brokered truce. But despite meetings in Jordan, no
breakthrough has been reached.
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