Yemen's internationally recognised government forces and the Houthi movement have exchanged heavy attacks, with each side claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on the other, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday. None of the battlefield claims could be independently verified.

Source: Al Jazeera

Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili, a spokesman for Yemen's government forces, said on Tuesday that government attacks had targeted Houthi positions in six provinces — Lahij, Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf, Hajjah and al-Bayda.

In his statement, the spokesman said government forces carried out at least 29 air strikes and 39 drone attacks, fired 62 rockets and carried out 744 artillery attacks. “Initial field reports indicate that about 190 Houthi commanders and fighters were killed or injured,” al-Nuzaili said. That figure is the government side's claim: Al Jazeera said it could not verify the battlefield claims.

The Houthis, in turn, said they had inflicted heavy losses on government forces. Al Jazeera's reporting gave no casualty figure for the Houthi claim, and the competing accounts could not be independently verified.

Yemen's internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, launched the counteroffensive — dubbed Operation Dawn of Yemen — to retake territory lost to the Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah, in September. Al Jazeera reported the offensive began on October 5.

According to the World Health Organization figures cited by Al Jazeera, at least 1,771 people have been killed in the hostilities in Yemen since August, with at least 7,959 wounded — a toll that covers the wider escalation of which this exchange is one part, not this exchange alone.

The fighting comes amid regional tensions triggered by the United States and Israel's war on Iran, which has kept the Gulf and Red Sea region on edge — a direct concern for the large number of Indian and Punjabi workers employed across the Gulf states.