Coalition forces reopen Aden Airport – Houthis deny losing city

Aden has not fallen to pro-Hadi militants: Ansarullah

… from  Press TV,  Tehran

[ Editors Note: I had not expected this battle over who has or has not taken Aden to be going on this long. Both sides have been making self-serving claims, but we have multiple confirmations now that the Houthis are being pushed back as both Saudi and UAE planes have landed and are making the Aden airport operational again. Yesterday’s Press TV report below was but one frame out of this long feature movie.

This could only be done if they had pushed the Houthis out of shelling range, or, on the odd chance that the Houthis had agreed to allow the airport to be used for humanitarian supplies. We hear nothing so far about who controls the port area, as the Saudi offensive could not be being sustained all this time without supplies coming in over the water.

We hear the planes are being flown by a number of nations that want their pilots to get some live fire experience. There is no news of any being shot down recently, so the flight tactics have improved or the Houthis ran out of ground to air missiles.

Getting supplies into the city will help the long suffering people there, but it will also establish a second front that can be easily supplied for the Houthis to deal with. Whether the Saudis will use their own troops there, besides some Special Forces ones which are always active, remains to be seen. The Saudis like to hire out combat work wherever possible.

There had been some reports of negotiation between ex-prime minister Saleh and the Gulf Coalition, but they have been denied, as expected. The Saudis are losing more credibility the longer this goes on, and the Houthis will fight till hell freezes over. But that said, the Saudis may unleash some terror brigades on them, as they have in Syria… Jim W. Dean ]

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–  First published  …  July 23,  2015  –

A high-ranking member of the Houthi Ansarullah movement in Yemen has dismissed some media reports that Aden has slipped into the hands of forces loyal to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansarullah’s political bureau, said that pro-Hadi militants have not been able to take complete control of the strategic southern Yemeni port city, which is situated 346 kilometers (214 miles) south of the capital, Sana’a, despite Saudi Arabia’s incessant airstrikes to help them gain the upper hand over Houthi fighters.

Bukhaiti further said that heavy clashes between fighters from his group and militants over the control of Aden are in full swing.

The senior Ansarullah official went on to say that key positions in Aden are still being controlled by Yemeni army troopers and fighters from allied Popular Committees, adding that they are pushing ahead to drive pro-Hadi gunmen out of Aden.

Bukhaiti also said Saudi Arabia has reaped nothing from its deadly aerial campaign against Yemen, and has instead suffered huge losses.

This is while, Saudi military bases in Jizan came under Yemenis’ retaliatory shellfire.

Meantime, fierce exchanges of fire have broken out between pro-Hadi militiamen and Emirati forces on the one side and Ansarullah fighters on the other. The fierce clashes have left scores of Emirati troopers dead and three others injured, the Arabic-language al-Masirah satellite television network reported.

Saudi military aircraft also launched at least a dozen aerial assaults against the main prison and a vocational training center in the Hawtah district of Yemen’s southwestern province of Lahij. There were no immediate reports of possible casualties there. Saudi jets also reportedly bombarded Yemen’s Hajjah several times.

Saudi fighter jets also attacked Yemen’s Dhubab region and also targets in the province of Sa’ada, killing at least one civilian and injuring several others there.

Moreover, Saudi warplanes struck border areas in the same province, though no information about possible casualties and the extent of damage was immediately available.

Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 without a UN mandate in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Tuesday that at least 1,693 civilians have been killed and 3,829 others injured ever since in the Arab country. However, local sources say over 4,500 people have lost their lives in the Saudi onslaught.

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Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.

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