Saudi-led friendly fire in Yemen kills 20

The Saudi-led coalition ground force fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen has captured the capital of Abyan province, after launching preliminary airstrikes and a series of coordinated attacks on strategic locations still held by the rebels.

At least 19 people were killed and 163 wounded in the past two days in and around Zinjibar, Aden health chief Al Khader Laswar said.

Yemenis are suffering from a shortage of food, water and medicine in the Arab world’s poorest country. Many, including loyalist fighters, were killed by mines planted by the rebels before they withdrew from the city.

The Arab coalition has enforced a near-blockade on the country to prevent arms shipments, but had for almost four months allowed trade and aid vessels to dock at Houthi-controlled ports to relieve hungry and impoverished Yemenis in the north. They will be exchanged for seven Al Houthi military commanders held in Aden.

Zinjibar became the fourth provincial capital to fall since the Saudi coalition captured Aden last month.

Yemeni officials have also said Saudi, Emirati, Egyptian and Jordanian advisers are training pro-Hadi fighters at a base near Aden.

Meanwhile, a French woman who was abducted in Yemen in February along with her translator was on her way home on Friday after being freed.

Thierry Goffeau, MSF project coordinator in the southern port city of Aden, said a team of MSF surgeons have been treating dozens of shelling and sniper fire victims every day at the local Sadaka Hospital.

The Saudis have trained Hadi loyalists and equipped them with tanks and other armored vehicles to open another front in Marib governorate in the northwest of the country.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak to journalists. In Taiz, forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi claim to control much of the city, Yemen’s third-largest and the historic second capital of North Yemen.

The northernmost district overrun, Al-Radma, is 125 km (80 miles) from Sanaa, which was conquered by the Iran-allied Houthis in September in what they called a revolution against corrupt officials backed by the West.