Aden reclaimed from Houthi rebels, says Yemeni vice-president

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/17/aden-houthi-rebels-yemen-vice-president

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The vice-president of Yemen’s exiled government in Riyadh has declared that Aden is now under the control of Saudi-backed fighters after days of battles with Houthi militia.

Residents and local fighters said 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 whole for what has been achieved in the last two days … The government announces the liberation of Aden province,” said the vice-president, Khaled Bahah, on his official Facebook page.

The port city 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 US, via the Red Sea and Suez canal.

The Shia Muslim Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, in September and pushed into the country’s south and east in March and April in what they say is a revolution against a corrupt government and hardline Sunni Muslim militants.

More than three months of air strikes by a Saudi-led Arab coalition and a civil war have killed at least 3,500 people and left more than 20 million of Yemen’s 25 million residents in need of some form of humanitarian aid.

Related: Yemen's humanitarian crisis leaves a million people in dire straits – in pictures

Ali al-Ahmedi, a spokesman for local fighters in Aden, told Reuters that dozens of Houthi fighters had surrendered 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 said they were advancing towards the Anad air base, 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.