War in Yemen: Rockets on port city force retreat

afp | According to military and government sources, at least five civilians were killed and eight others injured in a rocket attack by the pro-Iranian Houthi militia on a government troop base near the port city of Aden in southern Yemen. The attack reportedly occurred on Sunday at a checkpoint in Khor Omeira in Lahj province.

As the AFP news agency learned from army circles, the Houthis fired three rockets at the checkpoint near a small market.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni government's armed forces announced that they would station additional troops around the city of Aden, which is threatened by the Houthi militia. To achieve this, soldiers would be withdrawn from the area of ​​the strategically important Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is already controlled by the Houthi militia, the army said on Sunday. The priority now is “securing the port city of Aden and its neighboring provinces”.

On Friday, military officials told AFP that the army had begun piling sandbags around the city and digging tunnels in response to the Houthis' advance on Aden. Yemen's internationally recognized interim government is based in Aden. The capital Sanaa was captured by the Houthis in 2014.

The Iranian-backed militia recently took over large parts of the coast on the strategically and economically important Bab al-Mandab strait after a lightning offensive. The withdrawal of government troops from the region allows the Houthis to further consolidate control over the strait. The Bab al-Mandab waterway connects the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and must pass through the Suez Canal on the way from Asia to Europe.

The Houthis also recently took control of the mountains of al-Makatirah, through which the main road between Aden and Tais runs. Taiz province is a key theater of fighting in Yemen. The Houthis have surrounded the provincial capital of the same name since the beginning of October and are blocking the road to Aden.

After four years of relative calm, fighting between the Houthi militia and government troops flared up again in July. A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia supports the Yemeni government in the fight against the Houthis and has since regularly attacked Houthi positions. The militia, in turn, repeatedly attacks targets in Saudi Arabia, including airports, oil facilities and military facilities.

On Sunday, the international military coalition announced that it had again repelled a rocket attack on the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh. “The air defense intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles,” wrote coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki on the online service X. He blamed the Houthis for the attack.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) meanwhile announced the Houthis' release of 600 government soldiers who had been captured since fighting resumed in July.