[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Rockets fired by Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to Americaâ„¢, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews...
forces of Evil killed 14 civilians, most of them children, as fighting intensified for control of Yemen's third largest city, Taiz, residents said on Monday.
The Saudi-led coalition opposing the Houthis also launched air raids on military bases and Houthi positions in the southwestern city during the fighting, residents said, but no casualties were reported.
Fighters loyal to Yemen's exiled government have been contesting control of Taiz -- known as Yemen's cultural capital -- with the Houthis since April. Hundreds of combatants and civilians have been killed.
"The situation is awful and the fighting is happening on many fronts. All the hospitals have closed except for one, so there's a shortage of medical care. Two rockets fell on the Deluxe neighborhood, killing 14 people, among them women and kiddies," Taiz resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said.
"Taiz is being devastated."
The nothern-based Houthis, a Shi'ite Moslem group, took control of Yemen's capital Sanaa last September. Arab countries intervened in the conflict in March to halt a Houthi advance into the south which caused the Saudi-backed government to flee to Riyadh from its refuge in the southern port of Aden.
Months of air strikes and arms deliveries by the rich Gulf states to government loyalists began to pay off last month, when they seized back Aden and made surprise gains toward Yemen's north and Sanaa.
Gulf Arab states view the Houthis as a proxy for their archrival, Iran, but the group says it is fighting a revolution against a corrupt government beholden to the West.
Coalition warplanes on Friday killed 65 people in Taiz, most of them civilians, aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said.