YEMEN-SECURITY/ADEN CLASHES Yemen's Aden falls to Saudi-backed fighters

Record ID: 146788

  • Title: YEMEN-SECURITY/ADEN CLASHES Yemen's Aden falls to Saudi-backed fighters
  • Date: 17th July 2015
  • Summary: ADEN, YEMEN (JULY 16, 2015) (REUTERS) SMOKE RISING FIGHTERS WATCHING SMOKE ABOVE THE BUILDINGS / AUDIO OF GUNFIRE VARIOUS OF FIGHTERS LOYAL TO PRESIDENT, ABD-RABBU MANSOUR HADI, FIRING VARIOUS OF PRO-HADI FIGHTERS FIRING FROM WEAPONS MOUNTED ON PICK-UP CARS VARIOUS OF PRO-HADI MILITIA DURING CLASHES PRO-HADI MILITIA MEMBERS CARRYING WOUNDED FIGHTER / AUDIO OF GUNFIRE VARIO
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Yemen
  • Country: Yemen
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAMM0V909VTT9JITCHSZLKARCK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Heavy clashes took place on Thursday (July 16) on the streets of the southern Yemeni city of Aden between Saudi-backed fighters and Houthi militia.
    On Friday (July 17) the Saudi-backed fighters completed their offensive to retake Aden from the Houthi militia, residents said, as fighting in one main district subsided.
    Fighters loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi were seen firing light and car-mounted weapons on Thursday.
    Smoke rose from several Aden neighbourhoods as the fighting raged.
    Their victory in the port city - backed up by training and heavy weapons delivered by an Arab military coalition - marks a turning point in almost four months of aerial bombing and civil war.
    More than 3,500 people have been killed and a million displaced in the conflict.
    The war in Yemen has pitted the Sunni Muslim Gulf states which support the exiled government against the Shi'ite Houthis allied to Iran.
    Aden has been a focus of fighting since the Iranian-allied Houthis first laid siege to it in March when it was the last bastion to the government which then 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.
    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.
    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 armoured vehicles by the United Arab Emirates.
    Dozens have been killed on both sides in the clashes since the beginning of the week, medics said.
    The Shi'ite Muslim Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in September and pushed into Yemen's south and east in March and April. They said it was a revolution against a corrupt government and hardline Sunni Muslim militants.
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