SANAA // Pro-government fighters advanced to within 125 kilometres of Yemen’s rebel-held capital on Monday after seizing six districts in the central province of Ibb.
Tribal gunmen and militias loyal to President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi took control of the areas after heavy clashes with Houthi rebels, in the latest of a series of northward gains with the backing of Gulf Arab air strikes and weapons.
The northernmost district overrun, Al Qafr, is 125 km from Sanaa, which was taken over by the Iran-backed rebels in September.
A political crisis in Yemen descended into civil war in late March when Houthi forces advanced south toward the main southern port of Aden in late March and forced Mr Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi-led Arab military coalition began a bombing campaign against the Houthis on March 26 to restore the exiled government and fend off what they see as Iranian influence in their backyard.
Deadlocked for almost four months, the war has tipped somewhat to the advantage of the Houthis’ opponents, with their seizure of Aden last month and advance into nearby areas with the help of tanks and heavy artillery shipped by the United Arab Emirates.
The southern fighters also battled Houthi forces on Monday in the southern province of Abyan, ejecting them from the last large city in the area, Lawdar.
Two senior figures close to Mr Hadi, the deputy parliament speaker Mohammed Al Shaddadi and former interior minister Hussein bin Arab, were reported wounded in the battle for the city.
They were leading the loyalist forces at the time, local officials said.
Like Mr Hadi, both men are from Abyan.
Meanwhile, seven pro-government activists were handed to loyalist forces in Aden as part of a prisoner swap overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The activists belong to the Southern Movement, whose fighters helped to push the Houthis out of the southern port city in mid-July.
Rebel officials said the seven were released in exchange for an equal number of Houthi militiamen.
A security official at Aden airport said that the activists were handed over to the loyalist Popular Resistance Committees.
The activists departed from Sanaa with ICRC head Peter Maurer aboard a Red Cross plane.
Aden was the scene of deadly battles between local loyalist forces and rebels who entered in March, days before a Saudi-led coalition launched the air war against against the Houthis.
Mr Maurer arrived in Sanaa Saturday at the start of a three-day visit to assess the “dire humanitarian situation” in the country.
In Aden, he visited the wounded in hospitals and met with top medical officials in the city, said Aden health chief Al Khader Laswar.
The ICRC chief then wrapped up his visit to Yemen and flew out to Djibouti, security officials at Aden airport said, adding that Mr Maurer did not oversee the release of the seven Houthi prisoners.
The United Nations says nearly 4,000 people have been killed since March, half of them civilians, while 80 percent of Yemen’s 21 million people are in need of aid and protection.
The ICRC says 1.3 million Yemenis have been displaced by the conflict.
* Reuters and Agence France-Presse
