Houthi and Resistance fighters square off for battle over Yemen capital

Gulf-backed forces in Yemen are preparing to retake the capital Sanaa after a day of unprecedented victories on Tuesday.

The anti-Houthi Popular Resistance Committees, dominated by southern separatist fighters, previously seized control of the key southern city of Aden.

The group, backed up by a Saudi-led coalition in the form of weapons and troops, has since inched northwards towards the capital, which has been under the control of Houthi rebels since last September.

Supporters of the anti-Houthi fighters, commonly known as the Resistance, claimed the group had surrounded the central city of Ibb, and had warned the Houthis to leave within 48 hours.

A resistance leader who spoke to local news site al-Masdar Online said the group had established its first checkpoints on the outskirts of the city, and had seized control of eastern suburbs.

The group’s advances on Tuesday, which come less than two weeks after the Saudi-led coalition reportedly landed a battalion of up to 5,000 of its troops to support Yemeni forces, left the resistance in control of sites less than 100km south of Sanaa.

A video circulated on social media claimed to show a huge military parade staged by anti-Houthi fighters just outside the capital. Set to a nationalist Yemeni song, the footage appears to show hundreds of uniformed fighters taking part in drills in a desert location.

"Sanaa is the real target" of the advancing forces, according to analyst Mustafa al-Ani of the Gulf Research Centre.

A resistance source told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that the Houthis, who on Monday blamed the recent Eid holiday for their loss of the port city of Aden, were assembling their forces north of Sanaa in preparation for the coming battle.

It was reported on Sunday that the Houthis had declared a state of emergency in Sanaa, though the claim was denied by the group, who said instead that their military preparedness had been raised to its highest possible level.