Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Wednesday called on people to evacuate immediately from the airport in Aden, where the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government is based.
– Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a post on X that the evacuation was due to what he said was the presence there of a Saudi military cargo aircraft carrying weapons.
– There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities.
– The Houthi militia, which controls the capital Sanaa in the north, has repeatedly struck the airport, a humanitarian lifeline for and gateway to southern Yemen.
– Explosions were heard in Aden before the Houthi warning, residents in the city told Reuters.
– Fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government in Yemen has intensified in recent weeks as the Houthis pushed last month towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic shipping chokepoint which lies opposite the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.
– The conflict has become a new volatile front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran.
– Government forces staged an advance to retake territory seized by the Houthis on the Red Sea coast, potentially loosening the group’s grip on the strait, and the coalition intensified its strikes on Houthi targets in response to their escalating attacks on Saudi Arabia.
– The renewed fighting has shattered a 2022 UN-brokered truce which had largely halted attacks in the impoverished country mired in conflict since 2014 when the Houthis pushed the government south.
– Aid agencies have warned of rapidly deteriorating conditions as a result. Yemen has already been suffering from one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.