Yemen forces make gains in Taiz

DUBAI: Yemeni forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi made gains on Sunday in the southwestern city of Taiz after days of battles with Houthi fighters, a local official and residents said.
The Hadi supporters, who have been backed by airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition since March, made particular progress around the presidential palace, the locals said. The complex has changed hands several times and been all but destroyed in the fighting.
Medical sources said 13 Houthi fighters were killed in the fighting in Yemen’s third largest city. So were eight fighters loyal to Hadi
Several residents said Hadi loyalists had taken control of a number of mountain peaks on the southern approach to Taiz, Yemen’s cultural capital.
Houthi gunmen prevented convoys of medical supplies from entering an enclave of Taiz, the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said. Residents there reported the rebels were also blocking the entry of food, water and fuel to the area, it said.
“After weeks of negotiations, we have made no progress in convincing officials of the need to provide impartial medical assistance,” MSF’s emergency manager for Yemen, Karline Kleijer, said in a statement.
A security official in Aden told Reuters on Sunday that armed tribesmen raided the central prison in Aden, killing a guard and wounding another, to free a prisoner held for an earlier attack in the city.