Houthis seize centre of Aden in Yemen

Yemen's Houthi fighters and their allies seized a central district in the port city Aden, striking a blow against the Saudi-led coalition which has waged a week of air strikes to try to stem advances by the Iran-backed Shi'ite 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 group had yet to reach.

A Yemeni official denied that ground troops landed in Aden while a port official said they were armed guards who disembarked from a Chinese warship evacuating people from the city.

The southern city has been the last major holdout of fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled Aden for Riyadh a week ago.

In a symbolic move, the Houthis fought their way into a presidential residence overlooking Crater. Witnesses said a jet bombed the complex shortly after Houthi forces moved in, while three air strikes shook the city further north.

The Houthis, who took over the capital Sana'a six months ago in conjunction with supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, advanced on Aden last month despite the Saudi-led intervention which aims to return Mr Hadi to power.

Heavy fighting

Crater residents said Houthi fighters and their allies were in control of the neighbourhood by midday, deploying tanks and foot patrols through its 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 reporters by telephone. “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, while messages relayed on loudspeakers urged residents to move out to safer parts of the city.

Mr Hadi’s government has appealed for international ground forces to halt the Houthis.

A military spokesman in Riyadh said there had been no ground operation by the coalition in Aden, and Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US said the kingdom does not have “formal” troops on the ground there, although this remains a military option.

A diplomat in Riyadh said Aden was symbolic of Mr Hadi's authority and Saudi Arabia could not afford to allow it to fall completely under Houthi control. However, he said that Riyadh's air campaign was geared more towards a slow war of attrition than an effective defence.

Multiple conflicts

The war on the Houthis is now the biggest of multiple conflicts being fought out in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state, which is also grappling with a southern secessionist movement, tribal unrest and a powerful regional wing of al-Qaeda.

The fighting has forced Washington to evacuate US personnel from the country, one of the main battlefields in its war against al-Qaeda.

Huge street demonstrations in 2011 linked to wider Arab uprisings forced veteran leader Mr Saleh to step down, but he has re-emerged as an influential force by allying himself with the Houthis, his former enemies.

The Houthis are drawn from a Zaidi Shi'ite minority that ruled a thousand-year kingdom in northern Yemen until 1962. Mr Saleh himself is a member of the sect but fought against the Houthis during his presidency.

Prison raid

In the Arabian Sea port of Mukalla, 500 km east of Aden, suspected al-Qaeda fighters stormed the central prison, freeing 150 prisoners, some of them al-Qaeda detainees, local police said.

Officials named one of the escapees as Khaled Batarfi, a provincial al-Qaeda leader who was arrested four years ago. Soldiers loyal to Mr Hadi clashed with the suspected al-Qaeda fighters in Mukalla early today, residents said.

In Dhalea, 100 km north of Aden, where militia fighters from south Yemen have battled Houthis for several days, residents said the militia was in control of the town but Houthis had snipers firing from rooftops.

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.

Reuters