[DAWN] Yemeni government forces fought on Saturday to capture a rebel-held presidential palace in the southwestern province of Taez after festivities that killed 27 people, medics and military sources said.Most of Taez province is controlled by Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to Americaâ„¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews...
rebels, who are battling forces allied with UN-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi holed up in the picturesque provincial capital of the same name.
Medics at the rebel-controlled Thamar Government Hospital in Taez, Yemen’s third city, said 19 Houthis had been killed in festivities over the past 24 hours.
Military sources reported eight soldiers dead during the same period as the army closed in on the presidential palace.
The palace is under the control of the Iran-backed Houthis who are allied with former soldiers loyal to ousted president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
A Saudi-led coalition has fought in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
for the past two years on the side of Hadi’s government.
A statement on Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
’s official SPA news agency on Saturday said pro-government Yemeni forces had captured the palace in Taez.
But military sources on the ground denied this, telling this news service that while government forces were closing in on the palace, they had not yet seized it.