Battle for Aden continues

The WFP had sent aid ahead of the truce to the rebel-controlled port of Hodeidah in western Yemen, but the insurgents did not allow an aid convoy to travel to Aden. The ship had initially reached the city on June 26 but was diverted from the port until it had a safe place to dock. At least 17 rebels and 11 pro-government fighters have been killed in clashes since Sunday, military sources said. “WFP is working to channel food through Aden to people in need of humanitarian assistance particularly in Yemen’s southern governorates, which are largely inaccessible because of fighting”, a WFP spokesman said.

Vessels landed in another nearby port, and aid was delivered by road. Aden has suffered especially, with acute shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

“We (the UN) can not fill that gap”, he said.

The Saudi-led coalition has waged the air war on Houthi rebels since late March in an effort to restore the authority of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is now based in Riyadh. These ground assaults are reinforced through the continuing airstrikes by the Saudi Arabian and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Shiite Islamists had been pushed back from neighborhoods in and around Aden and turned their fire on the village of Dar Saad.

Yemeni medical and military officials said hundreds of residents fled Dar Saad during the shelling as ambulances rushed through the streets, sirens wailing.

The MV Han Zhi carrying enough food to feed 180,000 people for one month docked on 21 July 2015 at Aden’s oil port of Al-Buraiqa, Yemen.

Aden global Airport manager Tarek Abdu says the aircraft arrived Wednesday, carrying aid for war-torn Aden.

Meanwhile, as stated by a local source, popular resistance forces have purged state institutions in Aden of Houthi elements.

Nine rebels were killed in a raid on Khormaksar neighbourhood, witnesses said. They took control of the television and radio buildings, and army and security bases in violent fighting, the group’s spokesman Ali al-Ahmadi said. He said the rebels were dragged to a local cemetery, shot and buried in one hole.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief journalists.

The continuous bombings on Yemen have caused many hospitals to be destroyed or closed, al-Matari said.

Soldiers of the 39th Armored Brigade had captured Aden’s airport on March 25 after switching allegiance to the Houthi rebels.

Members of the UAE Special Forces have been embedded with southern resistance fighters since April while local fighters were being trained in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.