ADEN, Yemen, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's pro-government forces announced Tuesday that eight Houthi fighters were killed and 15 others wounded during intense clashes sparked in the country's southwestern province of Taiz.
In a brief press statement, the pro-government forces said the Houthis launched a "failed assault" in "an attempt to breach fortified military sites" controlled by the government in the northwestern part of Taiz during the past hours.
Eyewitnesses confirmed seeing Houthi medical teams evacuating the injured from the battleground and transferring them to hospitals outside Taiz.
They also noted that the Houthis dispatched large reinforcements from neighboring provinces, including Ibb, to bolster offensive operations against the government forces in Taiz.
The Houthis have not issued any official statement regarding the ongoing clashes in Taiz. However, pro-Houthi media outlets accused the pro-government forces of "aligning with foreign powers, including the United States and Israel," in a broader campaign against Yemen.
Yemen has been in a state of uneasy calm since Oct. 2, 2022, when the government and the Houthi group failed to renew and expand a UN-brokered truce.
Despite years of diplomatic efforts, the two sides have yet to reach an agreement to end the conflict, which the UN estimates has killed hundreds of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine. ■
