Iranian-backed Houthi militias have reportedly been ordered to withdraw from Yemen's southern city of Ibb, according to Al Arabiya News channel's correspondent in the country. The militias were ordered to leave the southern city and return to Saada – the group's stronghold in northern Yemen- by their leader Abdelmalik al Houthi, according to the channel. Also in Ibb, heavy clashes between forces loyal to Yemen's President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the militias led to the killing of a Houthi leader known as Abu Mahammed al-Ghayli. Meanwhile, the Arab-led coalition conducted a series of airstrikes against the militias in both Ibb and the country's southern province of Lahej. The latest developments come a day after forces loyal to Hadi made significant advances in the country's third largest city of Taez. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's war on March 26 in an effort to stop Houthi and pro-Saleh forces taking Aden, the last city nominally controlled by exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government, and to restore him to power in Sanaa.
