6 years since the battle of "Atma".. Recalling the weakness of Al-Houthi
English - Sunday 05 March 2023 الساعة 02:50 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, Ammar Ali Ahmed:
On this day 6 years ago, the Houthi group broadcast through its media video clips of what it called the operation "cleansing the dens of the mercenaries of aggression in the Atma district of Dhamar governorate", to cover up the fact that it was one of its biggest moral defeats in front of the Yemenis in recent years.
A moral defeat embodied in the experience presented by the Atma resistance and its success in steadfastness twice against the Houthi militia, despite the great difference in strength between the two parties, and it recalled its fragility and the possibility of crushing it militarily in the event of an organized battle in the north.
The first defeat that Atma inflicted on the Houthi militia was in August 2015, when it forced it to sign a tribal agreement to withdraw from it and not be stationed in it, following violent confrontations, after which the tribes of the region wrested what looked like autonomy from the militias.
An agreement in which the group saw it as a humiliating defeat for it, as it was forced to do so as a result of its preoccupation in an open battle that extends to dozens of fronts along the Yemeni map, and at that time it was desperately resisting the process of expelling it from the south, after the southern resistance succeeded in liberating the capital, Aden, and before that the governorate of Al-Dhalea.
The Houthi group could not forget what Atma had done to it, and with the calm of the battles on the fronts - with the exception of the West Coast front - it began to try to take revenge on the district and attack it in February 2017, and mobilized fighters and various types of weapons for it.
Despite the great difference in the balance of power, the militias suffered great material and human losses, as a result of the ambush method in which the tribal fighters excelled, taking advantage of the rugged geographical nature and the mountains of the district, which rise more than 2,000 meters above sea level. This turned militia members and crews into easy prey for tribal militants.
With the increasing losses of the Houthi militia and its inability to achieve any progress for more than 20 days, the militia resorted to its trump card, which is the "scorched earth" policy to force the fighters to surrender in order to preserve the lives of civilians from the indiscriminate and intensive bombardment of villages and homes, and the lack of a line of supply and armament makes it possible Continuing to resist is impossible.
The experience of "Otma" resistance was neither the first nor the last in the northern map. Rather, it was preceded and followed by experiences that are almost identical in details and results during the last 8 years. Experiences witnessed in "Radma" Ibb, "Hajur" Hajjah, "Haima" Taiz, and "Khubza" Al-Bayda.
All experiences and events confirm the fact that the Houthi group is militarily "weak" in the face of any act of resistance to the Yemenis, and that the continuation of its grip on the north depends on opening a comprehensive battle against it, as happened in the south in 2015.
