Friday, December 1, 2023
  • About us
    • Write for us
    • Disclaimer
    • Terms of use
    • Privacy Policy
  • RSS Feeds
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
DefenceTalk
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports
No Result
View All Result
DefenceTalk
No Result
View All Result

On mountain frontline, Yemen army makes push for Sanaa

by Agence France-Presse
February 5, 2018
in War News
3 min read
0
On mountain frontline, Yemen army makes push for Sanaa
7
SHARES
14
VIEWS

Ignoring the rumble of heavy artillery, Yemeni commander Nasr al-Dibani points at Huthi bases from a jagged clifftop, outlining his push to break a grinding stalemate on the frontline outside Sanaa.

“Whoever controls Nihm controls Sanaa,” Dibani, flanked by armed loyalists, said from atop a newly captured hill, Al-Humra, on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital.

Backed by air support from the Saudi-led coalition, the Yemeni army in recent months has toppled multiple Huthi rebel bases on Nihm, a rugged chain of cloud-cutting mountains on the eastern edge of Sanaa, which has been held by the insurgents since September 2014.

A bloody battleground, Nihm is a key gateway to the capital, which still remains elusive with the Yemeni military advance impeded by the treacherous mountain terrain and thousands of land mines planted by the Iran-backed rebels.

“What is a bigger enemy — the Huthis or the terrain? I say both,” said Dibani, clutching a walkie-talkie as he pointed at surrounding Huthi territory below during a press tour organised by the coalition.

Dibani said his army stormed many Huthi hideouts on foot, using donkeys to carry supplies before a months-long engineering effort to pave a moonscape of rutted mountain tracks.

Now pick-up trucks carry equipment, fuel and supplies to captured outposts, in a bone-jarring ascent.

Sanaa, less than 30 miles (50 kilometres) away, remains stubbornly out of reach despite the recent gains, highlighting the complexities of Yemen’s tangled conflict.

“Nihm’s rugged mountains make it quite difficult for even the most technologically proficient armies to make progress,” Adam Baron, a Yemen expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.

“This makes it unlikely — though not impossible — that there will be any dramatic shifts for the time being, even if both sides of this conflict see Nihm as one of the most strategically important battlefields in Yemen.”

A fight to the death
Further complicating the war, the Yemen army led by President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi is now distracted by the emergence of a new battlefront against southern secessionists who last week seized the port city of Aden.

Yemen’s civil war took a dramatic turn in December when Huthi rebels killed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s toppled ex-president, punishing him for switching sides and seeking peace with the Saudi-led coalition.

But the soldiers at Al-Humra seem unfazed.

Dibani used a knife to rip open a rock-shaped anti-tank mine that blended in with the dun-coloured landscape. Hundreds of such mines were defused on Al-Humra alone, he said.

In a small hole punched in the mountainside, used as a Huthi sniper nest, he pulled out discarded Islamic literature, cigarettes, fruit juice and cans of cream cheese and a condiment made from sesame seeds.

“They eat like us. They are human,” Dibani joked.

A foul stench came from another sniper nest, raising fears there was a dead Huthi inside.

“These men fought till their death, unwilling to surrender,” Dibani said.

A discarded pamphlet — embossed with images of university graduates and smiling youths — which was apparently airdropped by coalition jets during the fight, read: “Oh happy people of Yemen, Iran only wants the destruction of this Arab nation. Put your hands in the hands of the legitimate government of Yemen.”

‘Honour and revenge’
Dibani’s men — including teachers, lawyers and PhD holders who took up arms — insist they are capable of a swift advance to dislodge the rebels from Sanaa, but they are restrained by the need to prevent civilian casualties.

“We don’t want to capture Sanaa at the cost of burning the city,” Dibani said.

“Our families, our relatives, our brothers are inside.”

The United Nations accuses both sides of doing little to prevent civilian casualties, and plunging the country into chaos, famine and disease.

Dibani said ordinary Yemenis are so inured to tragedies that death no longer gives pause.

He insisted on pushing ever closer to the city, in the hope of pressuring the Huthis to surrender and commit to negotiations.

But that may be wishful thinking, analysts warn.

“This is because the tribes surrounding Sanaa have fluid allegiances,” Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen scholar at Oxford University, told AFP.

“It’s also because the Huthis will not simply surrender, irrespective of superior Saudi fire power. This is about honour and revenge, and not necessarily about military logic.”

Dibani insists they have no choice in the face of an intractable enemy unwilling to engage.

He cited a recent encounter between one of his men who seized a walkie talkie abandoned by the Huthis on a captured mountain and a rebel on the other side.

“Why did you kill Saleh?” the soldier asked in a bid to engage with the rebel over the air waves.

“Because he was ISIS (Islamic State group) like you,” he retorted before taking aim at the soldier, who was oblivious that he was in the rebel’s crosshairs.

The soldier survived a bullet wound on his shoulder.

Tags: middle eastsanaasaudi arabiawarYemenyemen army
Previous Post

Soldiers forge partnership with Oman in combat assault training exercise

Next Post

F-35 Out as Germany Weighs Tornado Replacement Options

Related Posts

First Shipment of New Gepard Ammunition Now on its Way to Ukraine

First Shipment of New Gepard Ammunition Now on its Way to Ukraine

September 6, 2023

35mm ammunition for Gepard anti-aircraft tank shipped to Ukraine 300,000 rounds ordered; production now relocated to Germany Elaborate postdevelopment process...

China will ‘never commit to abandoning the use of force’ on Taiwan: Xi

China warns against ‘new Cold War’ as big powers meet in SE Asia

September 6, 2023

China's premier said on Wednesday major powers must oppose a new Cold War, a thinly veiled reference to Washington as...

Next Post
USAF 5th-Generation Fighter Jets Arrive in Bulgaria

F-35 Out as Germany Weighs Tornado Replacement Options

Latest Defense News

First Shipment of New Gepard Ammunition Now on its Way to Ukraine

First Shipment of New Gepard Ammunition Now on its Way to Ukraine

September 6, 2023
China will ‘never commit to abandoning the use of force’ on Taiwan: Xi

China warns against ‘new Cold War’ as big powers meet in SE Asia

September 6, 2023
US sending 3,000 more troops to Poland, as Ukraine tension rises: senior official

Poland to spend over 4% of GDP on defence in 2024

September 6, 2023
North Korea pursues weapons despite Covid blockade: UN report

North Korea to pay ‘price’ if it gives Russia arms: US

September 6, 2023
USAF F-16 fleet undergoing largest modification work in history

Russia says F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine will be seen as ‘nuclear’ threat

July 13, 2023
North Korea says conducted new test of solid-fuel ICBM

North Korea says conducted new test of solid-fuel ICBM

July 13, 2023

Defense Forum Discussions

  • Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates 2.0
  • Royal New Zealand Navy Discussions and Updates
  • Indonesia: 'green water navy'
  • General Naval News
  • ADF General discussion thread
  • Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] News, Discussions and Updates
  • Australian Army Discussions and Updates
  • The Russian-Ukrainian War Thread
  • Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) News and Discussions
  • British Army News and Discussion
DefenceTalk

© 2003-2020 DefenceTalk.com

Navigate Site

  • Defence Forum
  • Military Photos
  • RSS Feeds
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports

© 2003-2020 DefenceTalk.com