Fighting in Yemen continues as Britain plans to help defend Saudi Arabia

RIYADH/SANAA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Fighting between Yemen's Houthis and government forces continued on Tuesday, while the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis traded fresh strikes and Britain announced plans to deploy fighter jets to help defend Saudi Arabia. Yemen's government forces said Tuesday they had carried out 744 strikes against Houthi military targets across several battlefronts over the past 24 hours. Majid Al-Nuzaili, spokesperson for the government forces, said in a statement that the attacks involved air and ground operations targeting Houthi command-and-control centers, firing positions, troop concentrations, reinforcements and supply lines. In the southwestern province of Taiz, government forces continued offensive operations to push back Houthi fighters, while operations continued on the eastern, southern, and western fronts, Al-Nuzaili said. He said the operations "neutralized" about 200 Houthi fighters and destroyed or damaged 90 military vehicles and other pieces of equipment. The claims could not be independently verified. The fighting in Taiz has raised humanitarian concerns. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk expressed alarm at the encirclement of Taiz by the Houthis, calling for the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to avert a human rights catastrophe. Meanwhile, Yemen's government forces, supported by the Saudi-led coalition, have intensified military operations on several fronts under the "Dawn of Yemen" offensive, which was announced earlier this month amid a sharp escalation in fighting with the Houthis. Also on Tuesday, coalition spokesman Turki Al-Maliki said coalition forces had intercepted a drone over the Saudi capital Riyadh. The announcement came hours after the coalition said it had intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi group toward Riyadh. Two loud explosions were heard in the city on Tuesday morning, while local residents received alerts through mobile phone applications. No casualties or damage were reported. Al-Maliki said in a separate statement later Tuesday that coalition forces had destroyed the launch platform used by the Houthis to fire the ballistic missile toward Riyadh earlier in the day, without disclosing the platform's location. The Houthis, for their part, said Tuesday that Saudi forces carried out 93 air and missile strikes across eight Yemeni provinces over the past 24 hours. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the latest attacks brought the total number of Saudi air and missile strikes since the current escalation began to 2,793. The figures could not be independently verified. Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported that eight fishermen were killed in strikes on two fishing boats off the coast of Dhubab district in southwestern Taiz province. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on the Houthi claims. Meanwhile, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Tuesday that the country will provide additional defensive military support to Saudi Arabia, given escalating Houthi attacks. The ministry said Britain would deploy Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon jets to support the protection of Saudi cities and critical national infrastructure against aerial attack, adding that these aircraft will operate in a "defensive role" and will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis. Separately, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in Tehran that Iran has repeatedly emphasized that the Yemen conflict should be resolved through dialogue and compromise between the warring parties, and that military force would not provide a solution. Commenting on reports of Egypt's possible military support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen's war, Baghaei said any intervention would not contribute to peace and security in the region and would only further complicate the situation. Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of the country's north. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.