In a major escalation of Yemen’s civil conflict, rival factions in the southern city of Aden on Thursday fought for control of the international airport and a security base, leaving at least three people dead, according to Yemeni officials.
Explosions could be heard throughout the city and at one point, warplanes conducted bombing raids on the compound of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was unharmed.
Violence has flared repeatedly in Yemen since the Zaydi Shiite rebel militia, known as the Houthis, took control of the capital, Sana’a, in September last year, setting off a power struggle between political factions and militias that has brought the country closer to civil war.
However, outbreaks of large-scale fighting in the port city of Aden have been rare. Thursday’s clashes quickly raised fears of a widening conflagration in the south, a stronghold for a separatist movement as well as a powerful affiliate of al-Qaeda.
Tensions in the city had been building for some time, mirroring a broader political crisis that has essentially divided the country between rival seats of power in Sana’a and Aden.
As the Houthis have consolidated their control of northern Yemen, Hadi, who was all but forced from office by the Houthis and fled to Aden last month, has sought to re-establish his authority in the south.
Foreign powers have become more and more actively involved in the power struggle, with Iran backing the Houthis and Hadi drawing support from neighboring Persian Gulf nations fearful of Iranian influence, led by Saudi Arabia.
Armed men have been streaming into Aden for months. Hadi has been gathering his own force, composed of military units and tribesmen, intended to counter the strength of the Houthis and their allies — among them Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who still commands the loyalty of some security forces in southern Yemen.
Hadi, in an attempt to solidify his control of Aden, had tried unsuccessfully to dismiss the commander of the Special Security Forces, one of the units loyal to Saleh and feared in Aden.
The unit was said to have set off the fighting on Thursday by storming the airport, drawing a response from Hadi’s loyalists.
Hours of intense fighting with heavy weapons forced passengers on a plane preparing to depart to Cairo to disembark and damaged one of Hadi’s presidential planes, according to an Associated Press reporter who was at the scene.
After receiving military reinforcements, Hadi’s forces were able to regain control of the airport and later overran the Special Security Forces base, according to a senior government official.
As the fighting subsided, the Houthis released a statement from Sana’a, calling for dialogue and a restoration of calm. The day’s events appeared, at least momentarily, to strengthen the hand of Hadi, once considered a weak, caretaker president who has enjoyed an unlikely resurgence after fleeing house arrest by the Houthis.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
RSS