YEMEN-SECURITY/ADEN AIRPORT Saudi-backed forces seize Aden airport in sudden advance

Record ID: 147143

  • Title: YEMEN-SECURITY/ADEN AIRPORT Saudi-backed forces seize Aden airport in sudden advance
  • Date: 14th July 2015
  • Summary: ADEN, YEMEN (JULY 14, 2015) (REUTERS) SMOKING RISING FROM ADEN AIRPORT / PEOPLE WALKING ON STREET VARIOUS OF PRO- HADI MILITIAS ON ARMOUR VEHICLE AT ADEN AIRPORT RUNWAY OF ADEN AIRPORT VARIOUS OF ARMOUR VEHICLES CARRYING PRO-HADI FIGHTERS DRIVING AT AIRPORT (SOUNDBITE) (ARABIC) UNIDENTIFIED PRO-HADI MILITARY LEADER, SAYING: "The airport is now totally under the control of
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Yemen
  • Country: Yemen
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7NMY7OVXO7JOGCV62PGCESNZ4
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Gulf-backed Yemeni forces recaptured Aden's international airport from Houthi militia fighters on Tuesday (July 14) as heavy combat took place across the port city following the collapse of a humanitarian truce, the exiled government said.
    Forces loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi also took Aden's central district of Khormaksar, and aid sources reported fighting around the port area.
    "The airport is now totally under the control of the southern resistance, and this victory is a gift to all the martyrs and wounded that gave their lives in these battles," said one pro-Hadi military leader.
    "And we hope for victory, and victory is near, God willing," he added.
    Backed by air support from a Saudi-led coalition, the loyalist forces launched a wide-ranging assault in Aden this week to reclaim territory held by the Iranian-allied Houthis.
    A coalition of Arab states has been bombarding Houthi forces, Yemen's dominant power, since late March in a bid to reinstate Hadi.
    He was ousted from the power when the Houthis took over the capital Sanaa in September then fled to Riyadh as Houthi forces closed in on Aden, where he had sought refuge.
    A U.N.-brokered ceasefire to allow delivery of aid to a city desperately short of food, medicine and other necessities collapsed on Monday (July 13) after Saudi Arabia said it did not recognise the truce and continued air strikes.
    On the humanitarian front, the U.N.'s World Health Organization managed to deliver medical supplies to Aden but it said food rations have been delayed.
    The U.N. World Food Programme said a 40-truck convoy carrying enough food to feed 117,000 people for a month had reached Aden province after being held at a checkpoint for days.
    But hopes of shipping 500,000 litres of fuel to Aden were still stymied by security problems.
    More than 3,000 people have been killed and more than one million displaced since the conflict broke out.
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