ADEN, (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthi rebels made broad gains in the country’s south and east yesterday despite a second day of Saudi-led air strikes meant to check the Iranian-backed militia’s efforts to overthrow President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Shi’ite Muslim Houthi fighters and allied army units gained their first foothold on Yemen’s Arabian Sea coast by seizing the port of Shaqra 100km (60 miles) east of Aden, residents told Reuters.
Explosions and crackles of small gunfire rang out across Aden late yesterday as Houthis made a push on the southern port city’s airport, a witness said.
The advances threaten Hadi’s last refuge in Yemen and potentially undermine the air campaign to support him.
The spokesman for the Saudi-led operation, Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, told a news conference in Riyadh that defending the Aden government was the campaign’s “main objective”.
“The operation will continue as long as there is a need for it to continue,” Asseri said.
Warplanes targeted Houthi forces controlling Yemen’s capital Sanaa and their northern heartland on Friday. Asseri said that planes from the United Arab Emirates had carried out their first strikes in the past 24 hours.
In a boost for Saudi Arabia, Morocco said it would join the rapidly assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Houthis.
Pakistan, named by Saudi Arabia as a partner, said it had made no decision on whether to contribute.
REGIONAL CONTEST
Riyadh’s military intervention is the latest front in a growing regional contest for power with Iran that is also playing out in Syria, where Tehran backs Assad’s government against mainly Sunni rebels, and Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias are playing a major role in fighting.
Sunni monarchies in the Gulf are backing Hadi and his fellow Sunnis in the country’s south against the Shi’ite advance.
Yemen’s powerful ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose military units fight alongside the Houthis, called yesterday for a cessation of hostilities by both sides, according to a statement carried by his party’s website.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen said the air campaign could end within days.
He said the door was still open for dialogue with the Houthis, while in a Facebook posting, Hadi urged Yemenis to be patient and predicted the Houthis would soon be gone.
But the Houthis and allied army units seized the southern town of Shaqra in Abyan province on Friday, gaining access to the Arabian Sea, residents said.
Their entry into the city means they control most land routes to Aden and can block tribal fighters trying to come in to reinforce Hadi’s troops.
Residents said dozens of pickup trucks loaded with tribal fighters have reached the town of Mudyah and were expected to clash with the Houthi forces based in Shaqra and the town of Lodar.
During a week of intense fighting, the Houthis have taken the Red Sea port of al-Mukha to Aden’s northwest, and the city’s northern outskirts, suggesting Aden is danger, despite the air strikes against the Houthis.
Witnesses in Sanaa said Houthi fighters and allied military units were re-positioning some anti-aircraft units at police stations in some neighbourhoods, causing panic among residents, who fear they will become targets for air strikes.
Residents said aircraft targeted bases around Sanaa of Republican Guards allied to the Houthis, and also struck near a military installation that houses missiles. The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency put the death toll in Sanaa at 24 and said 43 were wounded and 14 houses were destroyed.
Houthi-run al-Masirah television also said 15 people were killed in an air strike on a market in the northern city of Saada.
