Three Houthi leaders were killed in Saada and Sanaa, including one killed in a raid by the Saudi-led coalition, Yemeni media reported on Saturday.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia announced forming the Coalition for Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen after the Ansar Allah group, known as the Houthis, which is backed by Iran, seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in September 2014.
The three Houthi leaders were Abdelmalek Saleh Howais, who was killed in the coalition’s raids; Mohamed Saleh Al-Iraqi, who was killed in clashes with Yemeni security forces; and Ali Yahia Rashed, the leader of the special forces in Hamdan, whose car exploded.
Moreover, the new Yemeni foreign minister, Khalid Hussein Al-Yamani, stated on Saturday that the Houthi group is in a difficult position and is suffering from major losses due to the pressures on the group by the Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni forces. He added that the Houthis accepted the UN-backed proposals for a political resolution to the conflict.
Al-Yamani said that the UN received messages from the Houthis expressing their readiness to begin a peace process and their withdrawal from cities they are occupying, as well as handing over their weapons to the state.
The conflict in Yemen resulted in the killing of more than 100,000 civilians and wounding hundreds of thousands more.
More than 22 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance or protection, with about 8.4 million severely food insecure and at risk of starvation. “If conditions do not improve, a further 10 million people will fall into this category by the end of the year,” according to the UN.
