Oct 13 (Reuters) - With their city encircled by Houthi fighters, residents of Taiz say they face intensifying bombardment and dwindling supplies as the Iran-aligned group tightens its grip on surrounding areas.
Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has emerged as a major theatre of the conflict between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government, after their war was reignited last month by the U.S.-Iran confrontation in the Gulf.
The Houthis cut off a main road from Taiz to Aden last week, leaving government forces encircled.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the situation in Taiz had significantly deteriorated in recent days, and that people, basic supplies and humanitarian goods could not enter the city, driving up prices.
Yemen's internationally recognised government launched a campaign last week to recapture areas controlled by the Houthis, recovering ground near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a global shipping artery.
But the Houthis have kept up the pressure near Taiz, seizing the town of Mudiriyat al-Misrakh some 25 km (15 miles) south of the city on Monday, military sources said.
Residents reported heavy shelling of Taiz city on Monday night.
Government sources said the Houthis were to blame.
A spokesperson for the Houthis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"We lived a night of terror because of the continuous bombardment," said Ahmed Mahmoud, a resident reached by phone. "This morning there is calm and worry. The streets are empty."
Yassine Muqbil, another Taiz resident contacted by phone, said there had been widespread shelling and his child was too afraid to go outside.
Taiz city had an estimated population of almost 600,000, Katja Juric, IOM's Aden-based Head of Programmes, told Reuters. Government sources said 80,000 had fled in the latest fighting.
INCREASING PRESSURE
Military sources reported fighting in al-Dabab, 10 km (6 miles) from Taiz, and on Sabar Mountain, which overlooks the city to the south, saying government forces who had withdrawn from surrounding areas had regrouped in the city.
Yemeni government warplanes targeted Houthi fighters and equipment in Dabab and Misrakh, government forces said in a statement on Tuesday.
For the Houthis, seizing Taiz city would be a big boost 12 years since the war first erupted. It would leave oil-rich Marib as the last city under government control in northern Yemen.
Mohammed Al-Qadhi, a political and conflict analyst, said Monday evening's heavy shelling and the “tight siege” imposed by Houthi fighters indicated increasing pressure on the city.
"The Houthis know the value of Taiz governorate," he said, noting that its countryside overlooks the coastline and Bab el-Mandeb and that it had served as a bastion of "resistance against the Houthis and their ideology".
The Yemen war erupted in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, driving the government south.
Fearful of growing Iranian influence and chaos on its borders, Saudi Arabia led a military intervention against the Houthis in early 2015 to restore the government.
The resulting civil war triggered one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises and led to years of fighting and devastating airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.
The UN brokered a 2022 truce between the warring sides in Yemen that maintained peace until this year.
'CANNOT FIND FOOD'
In Taiz city, prices of basic goods have shot up.
"By God, we know families who cannot find their daily food," resident Nashwan Saad said on Sunday, adding that a sack of wheat had gone up by as much as some 40%.
IOM's Juric said access to Taiz city had been "significantly constrained", noting that a small bottle of water now cost up to $4. "The prices of basic commodities that are still available in the city have gone up significantly," she said.
"People are rushing to purchase and to stockpile basic commodities as they're anticipating a prolonged conflict and also further supply disruptions in the city."
Abdulrahman al-Qulaia, director general of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Office in Taiz, cautioned against panic.
"We appeal to the entire international community concerned with this matter, to humanitarian organisations and civil society organisations, to work seriously to provide these needs ... and lift the siege on the province."
(Additional reporting by Zainab Elhaj in London and Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
