Yemen’s Houthis seize central Aden district, presidential site

WebDesk April 3, 2015 3 minutes read

* Armed men disembark hours after Houthi gains in Aden * Houthi tanks, gunmen deploy across Crater district * Suspected al Qaeda fighters launch Mukalla jailbreak

ADEN: Yemen’s Houthi fighters and their allies seized a central Aden district on Thursday, striking a heavy blow against the Saudi-led coalition which has waged a week of air strikes to try to stem advances by the Iran-allied group.

Hours after the Houthis took over Aden’s central Crater neighbourhood, unidentified armed men arrived by sea in an area of the port city which the Iran-allied Shia fighters have yet to reach. A Yemeni official denied that ground troops landed in Aden and a port official said they were armed guards who disembarked from a Chinese warship evacuating people from the city. The Houthis and their supporters swept into the heart of Aden despite an eight-day air campaign led by Riyadh to stem their advances.

The southern city has been the last major holdout of fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled Aden a week ago and has watched from Riyadh as the vestiges of his authority have crumbled. In a symbolic move, the Houthis fought their way into a presidential residence overlooking Crater, residents said. They said a jet bombed the complex shortly after Houthis moved in, and three air strikes shook the city further north.

The Houthis, who took over the capital Sanaa 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. Crater residents 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.

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. “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”. Another resident said Houthi snipers had deployed on a 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.

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.”