Al Mukalla: At least five Al Houthi fighters were killed and several others arrested late on Friday in brief clashes with resistance fighters loyal to the Yemeni government in the province of Dhamar, army generals and government-run media said on Saturday.

The clashes erupted when rebel forces tried to set up a checkpoint inside areas controlled by resistance fighters in Utmah district.

The state-run Saba news agency said that pro-government forces attacked two armed vehicles carrying the rebel forces, killing five and arresting seven others, including the group’s commander Abdul Malik Al Jarmouzi.

The rebel movement backed by local renegade army units loyal to the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh seized control of Dhamar in October 2014.

Al Houthis’ capture of Dhamar was largely uncontested until they approached the district of Utmah where locals took up arms and revolted against them.

When the Saudi-led coalition began bombing Al Houthi-controlled military sites in Dhamar early 2015, the resistance picked up the steam and announced liberating some regions of Utmah.

“Utmah resistance is commanded by Abdul Wahab Maodhah and will expand its territories if they got arms and other logistics from the government like other fronts,” Major Mohsen Khasrouf, chief of Yemen’s Armed Forces Moral Guidance Department, told Gulf News. "More people have joined the resistance as the resentment is growing against Al Houthi militia.”

Early last year, local army commanders announced mobilising hundreds of soldiers in the central province of Marib, the base of the government and coalition forces. The forces were prepared to take part in a major operation to eject the rebels from Dhamar province, but the government apparently gave preference to focusing military efforts on Sana’a Nehim front and the western coast.

In the northern province of Hajjah, government forces heavily shelled Al Houthi-controlled territories in Haradh and Medi districts.

The official Facebook page of the 5th Military Region said that the army’s cannons targeted Al Houthi sites northern of Haradh to pave the way for the troops to advance.

Yemen government forces backed by the coalition’s warplanes opened a new front in the northern last 2015 when hundreds of troops, marching from the Saudi side of the border, advanced deeply into Hajja province taking control of part of Haradh city and the strategic port city of Medi, a smuggling point for the rebel movement. In the west, Yemen army battled Al Houthi fighters on the edges of Khokha port region, Hodeida province, after liberating all coastal areas in the province of Taiz.