DUBAI: Yemen’s Arab Coalition-backed army has advanced into the governorate of Nham east of Sanaa, liberating several Houthi-held sites, the Saudi-state news channel reported on Monday.
Yemeni sources said the army liberated the strategic mountains of Nakhsh after heavy fighting that killed at least 25 Houthi gunmen.
This latest news comes at a time when the army targeted various locations of the militia in several areas of the same region which saw the destruction of various pieces of Houthi military equipment.
Meanwhile in Taiz, 40 Houthi militia were killed in fighting with the Yemeni army. According to Yemeni sources, the army shelled military positions and reinforcements on the line between Naquil Al-Salu and Dimna Khadeer in Taiz, while destroying military vehicles and equipment belonging to the Houthi militia in Khadair district.
Separately, medical sources said Sunday a mother and three of her children were killed in a double suicide bombing in Aden, raising the death toll to 12.
The family was among seven people who succumbed to wounds sustained in Saturday's attack, which was claimed by Daesh.
Five other people, including security officers and a child, were killed on the spot when two suicide car bombings hit the headquarters of an anti-terror unit on a beach near the Tawahi district of Aden.
Daesh claimed the attack through its propaganda arm Amaq. Daesh has repeatedly attacked Aden, where the government is based, claiming hundreds of victims and mainly targeting government forces.
Yemen army advances east of Sanaa while dozens of Houthis are killed in Taiz
Yemen army advances east of Sanaa while dozens of Houthis are killed in Taiz
Iran, UK foreign ministers in rare direct contact
- A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues”
TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken by phone with his British counterpart Yvette Cooper, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on Saturday, in a rare case of direct contact between the two countries.
The ministry said that in Friday’s call the ministers “stressed the need to continue consultations at various levels to strengthen mutual understanding and pursue issues of mutual interest.”
A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues.”
The source in London said Cooper raised the case of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran for nearly a year on suspicion of espionage.
The Iranian ministry statement did not mention the case of the two Britons.
It said Araghchi criticized “the irresponsible approach of the three European countries toward the Iranian nuclear issue,” referring to Britain, France and Germany.
The three countries at the end of September initiated the
reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.
The Foremans, both in their early fifties, were seized in January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.
Iran accuses the couple of entering the country pretending to be tourists so as to gather information for foreign intelligence services, an allegation the couple’s family rejects.
Before Friday’s call, the last exchange between the two ministers was in October.
