17 Dead As Yemen Loyalists Battle Rebels For Heights

ADEN, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -21st Sept,2016) : Heavy fighting between Yemeni government forces and rebels for control of the heights overlooking the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait has killed 17 combatants, the loyalist commander said Wednesday.

The waterway connects the Suez Canal and Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean beyond and is a major shipping lane.

"We launched an offensive which enabled us to recapture two mountains," loyalist commander General Fadhl Hassan told AFP.

"In 18 hours of fighting, which reduced in intensity this afternoon, 13 rebels and four of our men, one of them a colonel, were killed." The rebels said on their sabanews.net website that they had taken several government-held positions and inflicted losses in the fighting.