Aden: Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi has vowed that the national army and pro-government Yemeni National Resistance, backed by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, will not stop their current military offensives until the capital Sana’a is completely liberated from the rebels.

He was speaking over the phone with the governor of Sana’a, Abdul Qawi Sharif, about the field developments in the governorate where the army is closing in on Yemen’s capital city.

Hadi praised the “unprecedented courage” of the national army and resistance fighters and stressed that “the republican regime will win, no matter how big our sacrifices may be, and defeat the remnants of the backward clerical imamate regime that came out of the caves of history.”

“The battle for Yemen is a crucial one and there will be no retreat”, Hadi stressed.

Fighting intensified outside the Yemeni capital, killing at least 30 people in two days, Yemeni security officials and tribal elders said on Tuesday.

Some 25 fighters from both sides were killed in clashes between government forces and Al Houthis and their allies some 65 kilometres east of Sana’a, they said, adding that five civilians were also killed when artillery shells hit residential areas.

Hadi added that defeating the Al Houthi militia and forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh in many parts of Sana’a governorate is the most crucial step before liberating the capital and reinstating the state institutions and the internationally recognised government.

Dozens of rebels were killed, injured and captured and their military equipment were destroyed in the battles, the security official added.

In the southern port city of Aden, fighting erupted on Tuesday night between government forces and Al Qaida fighters after authorities set up roadblocks as part of a security plan.

In Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, which is under an Al Houthi siege, artillery strikes killed three civilians and wounded 14 others as fighting broke out, the officials said. Air strikes also hit around the capital, at one point setting a weapons depot ablaze for several hours.

The officials, who are neutral in the conflict, and tribal elders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief reporters.

Separately, Hadi also praised the Arab Coalition, namely Saudi Arabia and the UAE, for supporting Yemen and showing what he called “a shared destiny and pan-Arab national unity and cohesion.”

Hadi said on Wednesday in cables to the Army Chief of Staff, Major General Mohammad Ali Al Maqdeshi, and Governor of Al Jawf, Major General Hussain Al Aji Al Awadhi, and Governor of Sana’a, Abdul Qawi Sharif that “our closed ranks, common goal and shared destiny constitute our effective weapon that made our heroes on various fronts even more resolved to defeat these rebel gangs that hijacked the state and abused its great capabilities and gains.”

GN