After taking al-Anad air base, the Houthis and their military allies, supported by heavy armor, advanced to within 40 kilometers of Aden, where Hadi has been holed up since fleeing the Houthi-controlled capital Sana'a last month.
Unidentified warplanes fired missiles at the Aden neighborhood where Hadi's compound is located, residents said. Anti-aircraft batteries opened fire on the planes.
Yemen's slide toward civil war has made the country a crucial front in mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia's rivalry with Shiite Iran, which Riyadh accuses of stirring up sectarian strife through its support for the Houthis.
Sunni Arab monarchies around Yemen have condemned the Shiite Houthi takeover as a coup and have mooted a military intervention in favor of Hadi in recent days.
US officials say Saudi Arabia is moving heavy military equipment including artillery to areas near its border with Yemen, raising the risk that the Middle East's top oil power will be drawn into the worsening Yemeni conflict.
While the battle is publicly being waged by the Houthi movement, many in Aden believe that the real instigator of the campaign is former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a fierce critic of Hadi.
It was Saleh who was the author of Aden's previous humiliation in 1994, when as president he crushed a southern secessionist uprising in a short but brutal war.
Unlike other regional leaders deposed in the Arab Spring, Saleh was allowed to remain in the country.
Army loyalists close to Saleh on Wednesday warned against foreign interference, saying on his party website that Yemen would confront such a move "with all its strength."
Diplomats say they suspect the Houthis want to take Aden before an Arab summit this weekend, to preempt an expected attempt by Hadi ally Saudi Arabia to rally Arab support at the gathering for military intervention in Yemen.
- Yemeni officials denied reports that Hadi had fled Aden.
The Houthi advance was taking its toll. The bodies of fighters from both sides lay on the streets of the outskirts of Houta, capital of Lahej province north of Aden, residents said.
In Houta, storefronts were shuttered and residents reported hearing bursts of machine gun fire and saw the bodies of fighters from both sides lying in the streets.
Eyewitnesses said Houthi fighters and allied soldiers largely bypassed the city centre and travelled by dirt roads to the southern suburbs facing Aden.
In Aden, heavy traffic prevailed as parents brought schoolchildren home and public sector employees obeyed orders to leave work. Eyewitnesses said pro-Hadi militiamen and tribal gunmen were out in force throughout the city.
Source:Reuters - globaltimes.cn
25-26/3/15
--
-
Related:
Gulf Arabs will take measures over Yemen if peace fails (Saudi Arabia)
Yemen crisis: Houthi rebels 'capture air base' near Aden ...
Two Yemeni presidential aides denied Wednesday reports that President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi had left the country, saying he remained in Aden and had no plans of leaving it, according to Reuters news agency...
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
No comments :
Post a Comment
Only News