ADEN - Local fighters and army units backed by Yemen's exiled government have taken control of Tawahi, the last district of central Aden still held by the Houthi militia and its allies, a spokesman for the fighters said on Monday.
The fighters, aided by a Saudi-led coalition, broke months of stalemate in Aden last week by suddenly seizing the airport and advancing into other parts of the port city held by the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Fighters from the Southern Resistance, which wants the former state of south Yemen to break from the north after 25 years of unification, entered Tawahi, at the tip of Aden's peninsula, late on Sunday after securing the Crater district. 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. Local fighters and Yemeni army units are also battling the Houthis and Saleh's forces around important military bases in Lahj province, to Aden's north, and in Abyan province, along the Indian Ocean coast east of the city. Fighting continues between local coalition-backed fighters and the Houthi militia and Saleh's forces in Taiz, a major central city north of Aden, in Marib, a tribal area east of Sanaa, and around al-Dhala, northeast of Aden.
Although the Southern Resistance and other local groups are backed by exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government in Riyadh, it is not clear whether they would eventually support his reinstatement. Saudi Arabia started air strikes against the Houthis and Saleh's forces on March 26 in an effort to stop them taking Aden, the last city nominally controlled by Hadi's government, and to restore the president to power in Sanaa. Riyadh fears its main regional foe Iran will use its alliance with the Houthis to project power into Yemen, eventually threatening the kingdom's southern border. Moreover, Yemeni loyalist forces said they advanced Monday into the last district of the southern port city of Aden still held by Iran-backed rebels, seeking to flush out the remaining insurgents.
Fighters from the pro-government Popular Resistance "have regained control of most of Al-Tawahi district," including the presidential residence, said spokesman Ali al-Ahmadi.
The southern fighters also pushed the Shiite Huthi rebels and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of the region's military headquarters and the naval base, he told AFP.
"A wide combing operation is under way to flush out" rebel holdouts, he said, adding that remaining insurgents had taken positions on several rooftops. At least 17 rebels and 11 pro-government fighters have been killed in clashes since Sunday, military sources said.
Ahmadi said 40 other rebels have been taken prisoner, but Al-Maashiq presidential palace in the downtown district of Crater remains in rebel hands. Loyalist forces backed by Saudi-led warplanes have regained control of most of Aden since an assault dubbed "Operation Golden Arrow" began last Tuesday.
Clashes have rumbled on, however, despite the government's declaration on Friday of the city's "liberation" after four months of ferocious fighting. Rebel bombardment on Sunday killed 57 civilians in the Dar Saad neighbourhood in the north of the port city, according to local health chief Al-Khader Laswar.
Two ministers from the government in exile in Saudi Arabia returned to Aden at the weekend, touring the devastated city. Transport Minister Badr Basalmeh told journalists in the city that a technical team had arrived from the United Arab Emirates to repair the control tower and passenger terminal at Aden international airport, which was heavily damaged in clashes before rebel forces were driven out.
Elsewhere in southern Yemen, Saudi-led coalition warplanes on Monday carried out several raids on rebel positions, especially Al-Anad air base in Lahj and the neighbouring province of Dhaleh, military sources said. The Arab coalition launched an air campaign against the rebels in March after President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi was forced to flee to Riyadh. More than 3,200 people have been killed in the fighting -- many of them civilians, the UN says.