Aden (South24 Center)

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Four soldiers from the Southern Forces were killed in separate Houthi attacks on the Dhalea and Harib fronts (between Shabwa and Marib), amid a field escalation coinciding with notable regional developments.

A South24 correspondent reported that three Southern Forces soldiers were killed on Saturday (March 28) by Houthi mortar shelling targeting their positions on the Al-Thukhub front, northwest of Dhalea governorate.

In Shabwa governorate, one soldier from the Shabwa Defense Forces was killed and three others were wounded in a Houthi attack targeting their positions on the Harib front, according to field sources on Friday.

The Houthi group has not issued an immediate statement regarding the two attacks, which come at a time of escalating tension across several frontlines between the Southern Forces and the Houthis.

This escalation comes less than a month after Southern Forces shot down a Houthi drone in the Rasd district of the Yafaa region in Abyan governorate. A military source stated that air defenses tracked the drone and successfully intercepted it before it reached its target.

Earlier this month, the Murais front in northern Dhalea also witnessed the killing of a Southern Forces soldier by a Houthi sniper.

The field escalation takes on a broader dimension as it coincides with regional developments. Israel announced on Saturday that it had intercepted a missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen, marking the first such incident since recent developments and the conflict with Iran.

Throughout eleven years of war in Yemen since the launch of Operation "Decisive Storm" on March 26, 2015, the Saudi-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy has been unable to achieve its full objective of reclaiming Sanaa and defeating the Houthis.

Since 2022, Yemen has entered a state of de-escalation between the Houthis, Saudi Arabia, and the internationally recognized government. However, frontlines between the Houthis and Southern Forces continue to witness intermittent clashes from time to time.