September Net

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels are escalating combat operations in Hodeida city on daily basis.

The coup militias targeted today, Tuesday, with Katyusha rockets the government’s representatives at the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) in Hodeidah.

The RCC which includes Houthi representatives is supposed to find mutually acceptable solutions and timelines for the implementation of the Hodeidah demilitarization provisions in the Stockholm Agreement.

“Houthi militias fired rockets on us  as we sat with government’s field commanders to discuss the implementation of the government’s part of redeployment as agreed with the UN peace mediator Martin Griffiths”, a source in the government’s team was quoted by Saba as saying.

The source said the militias are working persistently to fail any positive efforts from the government to save the Stockholm Agreement agreed under UN supervision in December.

The source said the rocket attack against the governmental team “was not the first and may not be the last.

The Houthi militias have already targeted the head of the UN Observers, General Patrick Cammaert, by firing at his convoy on the 50th Street east of Hodeidah City.

On the ground, the militiamen stepped up shelling with all types of weapons the National Army positions in Tahita, Draihrmi and Hais districts of Hodeidah, according to media sources in Amalika brigades.

The Monitoring Unit of Amalika brigades reported that the coup militias shelled with mortars the positions of the army troops in Tahita.

The Unit added that Houthi rebels also fired artillery shells on the government’s forces in Al-Jabalai of the same district.

It’s very important to note that Houthi rebels have been refusing observe the Stockholm Agreement since it went into force last Dec. 2018, including withdrawal of its elements from Hodeida city, and its ports.