Scores of fighters and civilians have been killed and injured as the government forces backed by the popular resistance retook Yemen's city of Taiz from the Houthi militants in the past 24 hours.
Local medical sources said more than 80 people including fighters from the government forces and the Houthis were killed in the battles that were culminated by driving the Houthis out of the city.
The forces and popular resistance have retaken all positions and military brigades inside the city from the militants and pro-former president forces in the past few days after months of bloody battles.
In recent weeks, many civilians were killed and injured as well as public and private properties destroyed in Houthi shelling.
Now, there are battles on the outskirts of Taiz where the Houthis have withdrawn and been stationed in what appears to be an attempt to resume the fighting for the city, a military source said. According to popular resistance fighters, almost 90% of the entire city has been retaken.
In response, the national forces blocked the road linking Taiz with the north where Houthi reinforcements pass locking the exhausted militants between Taiz and Ibb, the source added.
Taiz is the third largest northern and most densely populated city as well as the country's cultural capital.
The conflict including a siege by the Houthis preventing commodities from entering into the city has left more than 2 million of its population to suffer from lacks of all supplies.
In Shabwa which locals lately said was handed over by the Houthis to the government forces, well-informed sources said fierce battles between the two sides broke out in the town of Beihan today.
The battles erupted after the Houthis had rejected to leave this town after a deal that guaranteed the handover of the city's capital Ataq and other key areas peacefully, according to those sources.
Shabwa was the last southern city to be retaken from the Houthis after Aden, Abyan, Lahj and Dhali.