Yemen’s Armed Forces have made major advances on Taiz,  reaching the strategic southwestern city’s southern entrance, amid a high-stakes battle against Saudi-backed forces.

Lebanon’s al-Akhbar daily reported the development on Tuesday after confirmation that the Armed Forces had already positioned themselves at Taiz’s eastern and western approaches.

A local source told the paper that Yemeni authorities were seeking to prevent bloodshed by allowing the Riyadh-aligned troops to leave the city under guarantees of safe passage. The source said a general amnesty remained available to everyone except those who had “committed crimes and were subject to private legal claims and legal accountability.”

Amid reports of widening divisions among the troops, which have seen several military commanders leave for Aden and Ma’rib, al-Akhbar said Saudi Arabia was pressing them to fight on.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies imposed a blockade on Yemen and launched a sweeping campaign of military aggression against the impoverished country, backed by military, political, and logistical support from the United States and several other Western countries.

The war went on to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, without Saudi Arabia managing to achieve its main objective of reinstating its favorite officials in Yemen, who had fled the country amid political uncertainty.

On July 20, the Sana’a administration, which has been running the country ever since the Saudi-backed authorities’ departure, declared a naval blockade against the kingdom as a means of pressuring Riyadh into lifting its blockade.

It has also vowed to retaliate against Riyadh’s aggression under an “escalation for escalation” approach.

Towards responding to the Saudi blockade, the Yemeni Armed Forces have been cementing their gains around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Most recently, they launched an operation to encircle Saudi-backed troops near Dhubab and al-Suqiya in the western Yemeni Lahij Province.

Field sources told al-Akhbar that the forces had also advanced into al-Subaiha and al-Mudariba, also in Lahij, capturing the mountainous heights in al-Subaiha after Saudi-backed troops lost strategic positions there.