ADEN // Saudi-backed fighters loyal to Yemen’s exiled president captured Aden’s main port and a neighbouring district on Wednesday, a big prize in their battle to drive Houthi rebels from the southern city.
Coming a day after the fighters wrested the city’s airport and another district from the Houthis, the advance has dealt the biggest setback yet to the Iran-backed rebels in more than three months of war.
The Houthis withdrew from the port and district of Mualla into the district of Tawahi and were slowing the loyalists’ advance in another area called Crater, using intense sniper fire from volcanic crags which overlook the seaside metropolis.
The retreating rebels also pounded residential districts in the north and east of Aden with Katyusha multiple rocket launchers.
The loyalists have been reinforced by fighters freshly trained and equipped in Saudi Arabia, while a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, including the UAE, is providing air support. Coalition warplanes carried out six raids on rebel positions before dawn on Wednesday.
The Saudi-led coalition has been bombing the Houthis and their allies from the air since March 26 in the hope of reinstating Yemen’s president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, who fled into exile in Riyadh.
At least 12 civilians were killed and 105 wounded in the two days of fighting, while eight loyalist militiamen were killed and 30 wounded, Aden health department chief Al Khader Laswar said on Wednesday.
There was no immediate word on Houthi losses.
Other medical sources said that the main hospital in Aden had made an urgent appeal for blood donations.
A Western diplomatic source in Riyadh said that if the airport and surrounding area can be held securely then it could be used to deliver supplies to loyalist forces.
“This could be the first step to a beachhead,” he said.
Scores of southern militiamen were in the streets of Aden on Wednesday, residents said, as part of the offensive dubbed “Operation Golden Arrow”.
One witness saw about 40 armoured vehicles, which the militiamen said were vital for their battle to win back control of the airport.
Fighters amassed at the entrance of Mualla in the morning and exchanged heavy gunfire with Houthi forces, who were pushed over the course of several hours into Tawahi district.
Much of the city has been reduced to rubble by four months of ferocious fighting.
A struggle for power in Yemen exploded into an international crisis in late March when the Houthis entered Aden – the country’s main port and second city – and the Saudi-led coalition began its air campaign.
But it was the defection of troops from the 39th Armoured Brigade on March 25 that had enabled the Houthis to take the airport. These troops are loyal to Mr Hadi’s predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Ali Al Ahmedi, spokesman for anti-Houthi forces in the city, said earlier on Wednesday that the fighters would build on their capture on Tuesday of Khormaksar – an area that acts as a bridge between the mainland and a peninsula where much of the city lies.
“The southern resistance in coordination with reconstituted army units and coalition aircraft are moving into position to lift the siege on the area of Crater, Mualla and Tawahi and to storm and seize them back,” Mr Al Ahmedi said.
“The clearing of these areas is a matter of hours.”
Following Tuesday’s advance, residents of cities across Yemen’s south set off fireworks, honked horns and chanted slogans promising a swift victory over the Houthis.
The Aden offensive comes after the failure of a United Nations-declared truce that was supposed to have taken effect just before midnight last Friday.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon had announced the six-day ceasefire to allow the delivery of desperately needed relief supplies.
Mr Ban was “very much disappointed” by the failure of the truce, his spokesman said.
Meanwhile, US president Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Saudi Arabia’s king Salman on Tuesday “about the urgency of stopping the fighting in Yemen and the importance of ensuring that assistance can reach Yemenis on all sides of the conflict”, the White House said.
The United Nations has declared Yemen a level-3 humanitarian emergency, the highest on its scale.
More than 21.1 million people – over 80 per cent of the population – need aid, with 13 million facing food shortages, while access to water has become difficult for 9.4 million people.
* Reuters with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
