Despite Saudi-led airstrikes, Shiite rebels continue to advance in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen — Shiite rebels reached the outskirts of the key southern city of Aden on Friday, boldly defying a bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia that is seeking to push them back and carve out a protected space for the country’s beleaguered president.
The drive by the rebels, known as Houthis, indicates they have not been intimidated by a growing Saudi-led force of at least 10 nations that have pledged aircraft and ships in a major operation to stop the insurgents. The U.S. government is contributing intelligence and logistics aid to the Saudi-led offensive.
The fighting reflects how this impoverished Arabian Peninsula country may be turning into a battleground between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, the region’s foremost powers. The Saudis accuse the Iranians of arming the Houthi rebels.
For the first time in the two-day operation, Saudi officials sketched out the scope of their military operation, indicating they might not try to completely defeat the Houthi rebels but instead would seek to safeguard enough territory for President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to return from exile. He had established a government in Aden in February after the rebels toppled his administration in Sanaa, the capital. He fled Aden for Saudi Arabia this week as the insurgents moved in.
“I want to confirm that the operation itself has as its main objective to protect the government in Aden,” Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, a Saudi military spokesman, said at a news conference in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, according to the Re
uters news agency.
Anis Mansour, editor in chief of the city’s Huna Aden newspaper, said the rebels seized a government compound Friday in Dar Saad, about five miles from the center of Aden. They also took control of the city’s airport, he said. Rebels and pro-government forces have battled over the airport for days.
The Houthi attacks occurred even as the Saudi-led forces conducted a new wave of bombings. Local news media and residents in Sanaa said the airstrikes Friday targeted military installations controlled by the rebels as well as by forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, the longtime Yemeni autocrat who was forced from power by a popular uprising that started in 2011. He is widely considered to have thrown his support behind the Houthis.
Despite Saudi-led airstrikes, Shiite rebels continue to advance in Yemen - The Washington Post