Bahraini soldier killed in Yemen as Houthi rebels suffer Al-Bayda losses

Bahrain's military on Friday evening announced the death of one of its soldiers fighting alongside the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen - without specifying when he died and where exactly he was located at the time of his death.

The Gulf country's official news agency identified the deceased as first agent, Jumaa Mubarak Salem from the force's operational duty group.

The agency added Salem's body arrived to Isa Air Force Base on Friday, in the presence of Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Diab bin Saqr Al-Nuaimi who handed over the corpse to his friends and family.

No further details were provided on how he was killed nor the location of his death inside Yemen.

Meanwhile on Friday, the Yemeni army announced the restoration of a number of sites in al-Bayda governorate, central Yemen, after five days of violent battles with the Houthi rebels.

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The Yemeni army's media centre quoted the commander of the al-Bayda axis, Brigadier General Abd al-Rab al-Asbahi, as saying the Houthis retreated from some of their strongholds in Al-Bayda.

"The national army forces, backed by the Popular Resistance men and coalition fighters, have recovered a number of sites in Qaniya Front, north of Al-Bayda governorate, on the border with the oil-rich Marib governorate," he said.

He added that "the Houthi militias did not win in this battle, but rather they forced dozens of their people to perish," noting that the group lost dozens of its fighters whose bodies remain on the mountains.

The Houthis had taken control of the Radman district after a day of battles against fighters loyal to Al-Awwad tribal leader, Yasser Al-Awadi, the Assistant Secretary-General of the Congress Party, who fled to Marib.

The Saudi-led coalition has been condemned globally for committing atrocities on Yemen and targeting civilians since it intervened in the war-torn country.

The coalition's intervention in 2015 was aimed at restoring President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's administration against Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

The intervention, which has also included a blockade on Yemen, has resulted in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, killing over 100,000 people.

As a result of the ongoing war and blockade, over 24 million of Yemen's population are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, including more than 12 million children.

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