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Yemen: Houthi fighters and allies seize central Aden district Yemen: Houthi fighters and allies seize central Aden district
(about 1 hour later)
Yemen’s Houthi fighters and their allies have seized a central Aden district, striking a heavy blow to the Saudi-led coalition that has waged a week of air strikes to try to stem advances by the Iran-allied Shia group. Fighting has escalated in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, the last redoubt of loyalists to the exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, with Houthi rebels reportedly seizing the presidential palace amid unconfirmed reports of foreign troops landing in the city’s port.
Aden has been the last major holdout of fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled the southern port city a week ago and has watched from Riyadh as the vestiges of his authority have crumbled. Houthi fighters and troops loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh – who was ousted in 2012 after Arab Spring-style protests – battled their way into the heart of Aden on Thursday despite a week of punishing air raids by a Saudi-led coalition that is seeking to stem their advance.
Reuters reported that dozens of unidentified troops landed in the city by sea on Thursday, but it has not been possible to verify their nationality. An advisor to the Saudis denied to the BBC initial reports that the troops were foreign. The presidential palace, a cluster of colonial-era villas perched atop a rocky hill that juts into the Arabian Sea, was Hadi’s last seat of power before he fled to Saudi Arabia last month. Yemeni security officials quoted by the Associated Press said it had fallen into rebel hands.
Separately, a Saudi Arabian border guard was killed and 10 others wounded when their observation post came under fire from a mountainous area in Yemen, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday in comments carried by state news agency SPA. A resident of Aden whose son was killed battling the Houthis told the Guardian by telephone that violent street battles were raging throughout the city, with local popular committees and young people fighting disorganised street battles and resisting the advancing rebels.
Corporal Salman Ali Yahya al-Maliki, who was killed in the border province of Asir, is the first known Saudi fatality in the week-old military campaign. “They learned street fighting from the Americans to combat al-Qaida and now they have turned against the people,” he said of Saleh’s troops, which are aiding the Houthis.
The Houthis, who took over the capital, Sana’a, six months ago in alliance with supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, turned on Aden last month and have kept up their advances despite the Saudi-led intervention which aims to return Hadi to power. He said there was no organised leadership of the Aden residents taking on the Houthis, and that his home had been partially burned as a result of the Houthi and Saleh fighters firing indiscriminately at locals’ homes.
Residents of Aden’s central Crater district said Houthi fighters and their allies were in control of the neighbourhood by midday on Thursday, deploying tanks and foot patrols through its otherwise empty streets after heavy fighting in the morning. Residents of Aden’s central Crater district told Reuters that Houthi fighters and their allies were in control of the neighbourhood by midday on Thursday, deploying tanks and foot patrols through its otherwise empty streets after heavy fighting in the morning.
It was the first time fighting on the ground had reached so deeply into central Aden. Crater is home to the local branch of Yemen’s central bank and many commercial businesses. The Houthi advance appears to be aimed at seizing as much ground as possible to strengthen their hand in any future power-sharing negotiations, but it is unclear if they can hold the city given the presence of homegrown resistance to their rule and the ongoing street battles.
“People are afraid and terrified by the bombardment,” one resident, Farouq Abdu, told Reuters by telephone from Crater. “No one is on the streets - it’s like a curfew“. Their progress also threatens an escalation by Saudi Arabia, which has not ruled out a ground invasion. The coalition, which is backed by the US, also includes Egypt, most of the Gulf states and Pakistan.
Another resident said Houthi snipers had deployed on the mountain overlooking Crater and were firing on the streets below. Several houses were on fire after being struck by rockets, and messages relayed on loudspeakers urged residents to move out to safer parts of the city, he said. Reuters reported that dozens of unidentified troops have landed in the city by sea, but it has not been possible to verify their nationality. An adviser to the Saudis denied the BBC initial reports that the troops were foreign.
Hadi’s rump government has appealed for international ground forces to halt the Houthis. Foreign Minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla said he could not confirm that coalition forces had landed in Aden, but told Reuters: “I hope so. I hope very much.“ Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led states in the region are concerned about Iran’s growing sphere of influence in the Middle East, and accuse the Houthis of being puppets of the Islamic Republic, which has opposed the Yemeni operation, known as Decisive Storm.
A Houthi spokesman said late on Wednesday that the fighting in Aden showed that Saudi Arabia’s military intervention had failed. The coalition’s spokesman, Brig Gen Ahmad Asiri, said in a press briefing on Wednesday that the operation would continue, saying fighter jets had targeted Houthi-held ballistic missiles, air defences and weapons depots, as well as troop positions backing the Aden assault. He added that the coalition did not target them inside the city to avoid civilian casualties.
“The victories in Aden today embarrass this campaign and silenced the aggressor states,” Mohammad Abdulsalam told the group’s al-Maseera television. Asiri also accused the Houthis of bombing al-Mazraq refugee camp, where at least 29 people were killed on Tuesday, saying the coalition was not responsible for the attack.
The war on the Houthis is now the biggest of multiple conflicts being fought out in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state, also grappling with a southern secessionist movement, tribal unrest and a powerful regional wing of al Qaeda. He said the coalition’s naval assets had taken full control of the waters surrounding Yemen to enforce a blockade on the Houthis.
The fighting has forced Washington to evacuate U.S. personnel from the country, one of the main battlefields in the secret American drone war against al-Qaida. The Aden resident who asked not to be named urged the coalition to “take responsibility” and land troops to remove the Houthis from the city.
Huge street demonstrations in 2011 linked to wider Arab uprisings forced veteran leader Saleh to step down, but he has re-emerged as an influential force by allying himself with the Houthis, his former enemies. He said: “Our hope is great in God and our brothers, that they are responsible. They took us into war and only used planes but if they land well-trained forces these militias would be routed.”
The Houthis are drawn from a Zaidi Shia minority that ruled a thousand-year kingdom in northern Yemen until 1962. Saleh himself is a member of the sect but fought to crush the Houthis as president. He said the humanitarian situation in the city was tragic and his son would have survived the wounds he sustained in fighting if there were medical supplies and specialist doctors still in the city.
In the Arabian Sea port of Mukalla, 500 km (300 miles) east of Aden, suspected al- Qaida fighters stormed the central prison and freed 150 prisoners, some of them al Qaeda detainees, sources in the local police and administration said. Doctors Without Borders said in a statement on Thursday that it is “facing real difficulties sending in more supplies and personnel due to the closure of ports and airports, and due to the active fighting and bombing”.
They named one of the escapees as Khaled Batarfi, a provincial al Qaeda leader who was arrested four years ago, security sources said. Soldiers loyal to Hadi clashed with the suspected al Qaeda fighters in Mukalla early on Thursday, residents said. The organisation said it has treated 580 wounded people in its emergency surgical unit in Aden over seven different waves of mass casualties.
In Dhalea, 100 km (60 miles) north of Aden, where militia fighters from the south have battled Houthis for several days, residents said the militia were in control of the town but Houthis were sniping from rooftops. Action Against Hunger, one of the few organisations still operating in Yemen, said the humanitarian situation is “dire and worsening daily”, and it is all but impossible to import basic food staples amid airport and port closures and the no-fly zone over the country.
Residents also reported air strikes overnight on the coastal town of Shaqra, which is under Houthi control and lies on the coast between Aden and Mukalla. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Cairo and Amena Bakr in Dubai; Writing by Dominic Evans, Editing by William Maclean and Peter Graff)