The Yemeni military said on Saturday that they had killed over 1,000 Houthi rebels, 215 of those commanders, during September.
The military’s statement was made on their official web page 26September.net. It posted a detailed breakdown of the casualties inflicted in the war-torn country. As a cause for the high number of rebel casualties, the military cited the heavy fighting that has been gripping many areas of the country. In particular, fighting has been ongoing in the outskirts of Marib and Al-Jawf through Al-Bayda, Nihnm, east of the capital Sanaa, to the fronts of Al-Dhale governorate, where Iranian-backed Houthi militia units have received heavy casualties over the past month.
The military claimed that it arrived at the number of rebels killed by observing the funerals conducted by the Houthi rebels as they buried their dead after clashes or coalition airstrikes.
In the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa, there was the greatest number of Houthi dead with 285 killed, including 119 senior leaders.
For the rest of the combat zones the Yemeni military provided the following numbers:
Sadaa governorate: 80 Houthis killed, including 18 commanders. Dhamar: 69, including 11 commanders. Hajjah: 70, including 21 commanders. Amran: 54, including 15 commanders. Ibb followed with 48 dead, including four commanders, Al-Mahweit with 42 dead, including 14 commanders, and al-Bayda governorate with 33 dead, including four commanders.
The province of Hodeidah had 22 dead, Taiz 14, Rimah six, and Al-Dhale 25. Finally, Al-Jawf province had more than 50 dead, including nine militia field commanders.
Regarding the dead Houthi commanders, the Yemeni military provided the following details: “The statistics confirm that of the dead leaders among Houthi militia (3) leaders who impersonate a major, including at least 20 brigadiers general, 28 colonels, at least 32 lieutenants, and (27) others as majors, while the rest are captains, lieutenants.”
The Houthi rebels have not commented on the Yemeni military’s report.
The Yemeni civil war broke out in September of 2014. The Houthi rebels captured the capital of Sanaa and have since been trying to oust the remainder of the Yemeni national government of the president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
In March 2015, President Hadi fled the country when the Houthis reached the city of Aden in March of 2015, where the seat of his government was located. Saudi Arabia then came to the aid of the government and began conducting airstrikes. The Saudis also formed a coalition force in support of the government.
Conversely, the Houthis have received massive financial and military support from the Iranian government. As a result, the Yemeni civil war has become somewhat of an extension of the ongoing Saudi Arabian-Iran proxy conflict as the kingdom has tried to curb growing Iranian influence in the region. In this case, the Yemeni people are stuck in the middle.
In recent years the conflict has been growing more complicated with the introduction of both al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State (ISIS) who have carried out attacks against both sides. AQAP is controlling large areas of territory in the outlying areas of Yemen and along stretches of the coast.
The U.S. has supported the Saudi coalition and has furnished both logistical and drone support for the Yemeni government. However, according to the Pentagon, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of military equipment has gone missing since it was delivered.
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