|
 Residents and local fighters said they now control about ninety
percent of the city, but low-level clashes were continuing in the
Tawahi district in the west of the city to sweep the Houthis from
one of their last redoubts.
"We congratulate the people of Aden and the Republic of Yemen as a
whole for what has been achieved in the last two days ... The
government announces the liberation of Aden province," Khaled Bahah
said on his official Facebook page.
Aden has been a focus of fighting since the Houthis first laid siege
to it in March when it was home to the government which subsequently
fled to Saudi Arabia.
Once one of the world's busiest ports, Aden sits near the Bab
al-Mandab shipping lane, a major energy gateway for Europe, Asia and
the United States via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
Exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi praised the fighters and the
Arab alliance, promising that the gains in Aden were the start of a
drive to take back the country.
"We will soon achieve a glorious victory in Yemen, our beloved
country, in its entirety ... the victory in Aden will be the key to
saving our cause," Hadi said in a televised speech.
More than three months of air strikes by the Saudi-led Arab
coalition and a civil war has killed at least 3,500 people and
rendered more than 20 million of its 25 million residents in need of
some form of humanitarian aid.
"AGGRESSORS"
Ali Al-Ahmedi, spokesman for the local fighters in Aden, told
Reuters that dozens of Houthi fighters had surrendered themselves to
the militiamen as they lost ground.
The advances began on Tuesday when local fighters seized the city's
international airport, followed by the main sea port the next day,
then one district after another.
Fighters and eyewitnesses say the Aden offensive was backed up by
donations of heavy weapons by the Arab alliance including around 100
armored vehicles by the United Arab Emirates.
Dozens have been killed on both sides in the clashes since the
beginning of the week, medics said.
On Thursday, several ministers and top intelligence officials from
the exiled government touched down in Aden for the first time since
the start of the war, in a move local officials said was aimed
making it a base to revive the shattered Yemeni state.
[to top of second column] |
The Shi'ite Muslim Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in September
and pushed into Yemen's south and east in March and April in what
they say is a revolution against a corrupt government and hardline
Sunni Muslim militants.
Their spread has been aided by most of Yemen's army, which remains
loyal to former strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was
ousted in Arab Spring protests in 2011.
In a statement on his official twitter page, Saleh said Yemen would
continue to resist the Saudi-backed campaign.
"We will thwart one of the most dangerous conspiracies yet against
our people ... no matter how long the aggression continues and the
aggressors go to far in their war of extermination, no matter how
long it lasts it will end in failure," Saleh wrote.
Fighters said they were advancing toward the Anad air base 60 km (40
miles) north of Aden with backing from air strikes.
Nevertheless, on the Muslim feasting holiday of Eid, food and basic
supplies were being blocked at Houthi checkpoints on the city's
outskirts, residents said.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Noah Browning;
Editing by Louise Ireland and Giles Elgood)
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