Houthi Commander Haitham Abdallah Thawaba, leading the first border guards infantry battalion, announced on Tuesday his defection from Houthi militias. He joined the national army ranks in the northern Jawf province, reported Al-Arabiya. “Joining the national army comes in protest against actions carried out by Houthi militias and criminal practices against citizens in areas that are still under their control,” Thawaba was quoted as saying. The Iran-backed Houthis had appointed Thawaba as commander of the first border guard infantry regiment in Jawf in 2017. Thawba’s defection coincided with the national army forces’ advance on the militias in the southern neighborhoods of the city of Midi, northwest of the Hajjah governorate near Saudi borders. The national army mine-sweeping teams cleared explosive devices left behind by the militias. “In the past two days, Yemen’s national army marched deeper into southwestern districts of Midi, which were under Houthi control amid violent clashes with militias," said an official statement issued by the fifth military brigade. The statement pointed out that the advance of national army, led by the commander of the fifth military district, Major General Yahya Salah, was tasked with clearing militia pockets in Midi’s south that was under a months-long siege imposed by the Houthis. Military offensives killed dozens of militiaman and captured at least four Houthis. Meanwhile, a military source revealed that senior Houthi leaders Mohammad Hassan Shqman Al-Sharif and Abu Sarkah Zaidi were killed in clashes with the national army in Sirwah. Yemeni army forces, backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, had launched a wide-scale offensive to recapture Sirwah, the Houthis’ last stronghold in western Marib. The Yemeni army announced that 50 Houthis were killed and dozens injured in the past two days, in ongoing clashes in Sirwah.