TUNIS, September 21. /TASS/. Saudi forces have fired more than 130 missiles and shells at populated areas in Yemen’s northern Saada province over the past 12 hours, the Al Masirah television channel affiliated with Yemen’s rebel Ansar Allah movement (Houthis) reported.

According to its sources, the shelling is continuing. Populated areas in the Az-Zahir and Haydan districts came under fire.

Meanwhile, Al Hadath television channel reported that Yemeni government forces had regained control of several positions in the south and west of Taiz province following fierce clashes with the Houthis.

The confrontation between Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis has been ongoing in Yemen since August 2014. The situation sharply escalated in early September, when the Ansar Allah movement launched an offensive in the southwest of the country. At the same time, the Houthis began carrying out missile and drone strikes on coastal areas of the Red Sea in western Yemen and on the outskirts of Taiz, a city in southwestern Yemen. They sought to cut off routes to Mocha, a port city on Yemen’s western coast, and advance toward areas near the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which separates Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea. On September 12, Ansar Allah Politburo member Huzam al-Asad confirmed to TASS that the Houthis had completed an operation to establish control over territories with access to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in western Yemen.