The Yemeni government army and the Popular Resistance forces today liberated more areas in the southern province of Shabwa from the militants of the rebel Houthi group and its ally, the now-ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, after inflicting heavy human and material losses on the rebels.

The strategic al-Alam and al-Salim areas of Asilan district were liberated by the 21st Mechanised Brigade, backed by air support from the Arab Coalition, and the rebel forces fled the battlefield after sustaining heavy casualties, Brigadier Jahdal Al Auwaki, Commander of the brigade, was quoted as saying by the Yemen News Agency SABA.

The army also managed to cut the rebels’ supply lines from the central province of al-Baida and the fighting is going on there, a military source at Yemen’s armed forces said.