Twenty-three Houthi militants were killed - today, Sunday - during confrontations with Yemeni government forces in the Nahham district, east of the capital, Sanaa, while the government said that the Houthis were using the Safer oil tank in the west of the country as a military point threatening the environmental security of the Red Sea.
The Media Center for Popular Resistance in Sanaa said, "The army and resistance forces repulsed a march of the Houthi militia that attempted to regain positions recently liberated by the army in the Najd al-Ataq front in the Directorate of Nahham (about 50 km east of Sanaa)."
The center added - in a statement - that "the army forces burned three crews (military vehicles) and armored vehicles, and killed 23 attacking elements (Houthis)." He pointed out that the same forces succeeded in breaking the Houthi march and carried out a counter-attack in which they were able to make field progress, without giving further details.
A few days ago, the Yemeni army announced its control of several strategic locations in the Nahham district, which is described as the eastern gate to Sanaa.
The Yemeni army forces shot down a Houthi-guided plane in the eastern province of Ma'rib, late on Saturday evening, according to the official Yemeni News Agency (Saba).
Environmental threat
On the other hand, the Yemeni government said today, Sunday, that the Houthis are using the Safer oil tank in the west of the country as a military point, threatening the environmental security of the Red Sea.
The Governmental Economic Committee - on its Facebook page - stated that the government made all concessions to repair the oil tank, which needs periodic maintenance, away from conflicts.
The oil reservoir on the Red Sea is a humanitarian, environmental and marine catastrophe, in the event of any leakage of oil, and the Houthis insist on keeping it a military bulwark threatening the security of the Red Sea, according to the committee.
For its part, warned the Yemeni "Green Dream" platform specialized in environmental affairs, that the oil spill from Safir will expose Yemen's marine environment to total destruction, saying that 115 Yemeni islands in the Red Sea will lose their biological diversity.
The platform indicated - in a report - that 850,000 tons of fish stocks in Yemeni waters would be damaged within the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden.
She added: "Crude oil spots, if leaked, will kill 969 fish species in Yemeni waters, as the reservoir contains 150,000 tons of crude oil."
The government says that the Houthi group has refused five years ago to allow an international team to maintain the tank, which the group denies.
The weight of the tanker tanker Saffr 409 thousand metric tons, and it was named this name in relation to the location where the oil was first discovered in Yemen.
Yemen is witnessing for the sixth year a violent war that led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, where 80% of the population needed humanitarian aid, and the conflict pushed millions to the brink of starvation.