Fighting In Aden As Yemen’s Houthis Make Gains

Mideast Iraq

Iran-allied Houthi militiamen successfully pushed into the northeastern outskirts of the Yemeni port city of Aden on Monday amid heavy clashes with the loyalists of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, sources on both sides said. Reuters have more:

Artillery and rocket fire struck the area on the approaches to the city, Hadi’s fighters said, after the Houthis made a fresh advance from the east along an Arabian Sea coast road. Aden is Hadi’s last bastion of control in Yemen and remains besieged despite a fifth day of Saudi-led air strikes aimed at checking the Houthi gains.

North of Aden, residents in the city of Dhalea said Houthi fighters backed by allied army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh shelled militia opponents with tanks and artillery. Five civilians were killed in heavy street fighting, they said.

Saudi Arabia, backed by regional Sunni Muslim allies, launched an air campaign to support Hadi after he withdrew last month from the capital to Aden. He left Yemen on Thursday to attend an Arab summit and has not returned.

The fighting has brought civil war to the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, which was already sliding into chaos with a growing secessionist movement in the south and a covert U.S. drone campaign – now stalled – against al Qaeda in the east.