Yemeni
Prime Minister Khaled Bahah landed in Aden on Saturday, accompanied by six
government ministers, and greeted at the airport by seven government ministers already in “liberated
Aden.” Bahah later convened a cabinet meeting in the city, a symbolic move to
show the end of the Houthi domination of the country and beginning of the
return of “normal life” to the country, Bahah said. He later flew out to Abu
Dhabi, his spokesman announced. (AFP, 2 August)
An AFP
correspondent who toured Aden on Saturday said authorities have managed to
partly reopen main roads after removing debris, including burned out military
vehicles and cars. Residents have also ventured outdoors, some returning from
other areas of the city to homes devastated in the fighting, AFP reported.
Meanwhile,
government forces were pressing to advance north and east of Aden to dislodge
the insurgents entrenched in Lahj and Abyan provines. Pro-government Popular
Resistance militias entered the strategic southern city of Zanjibar. The capture
of Zanjibar would secure Aden’s western flanks and cut off a key supply line
for the Houthis. The militia said late on Saturday that they are in control of
south and west of the city.
Fighting
also raged on in Yemen’s third largest city of Taiz, with five pro-government
fighters and 47 rebels reportedly killed on Saturday. Arab coalition warplanes
stepped up raids late Friday and early Saturday against Houthi positions in the
strategic Al-Anad air base, Yemen’s largest, in Lahj province, AFP said. The capture of Al-Anad
will give the coalition a strategic base of operation in the country.
File
photo: Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah (AFP)
