ADEN, Yemen
Yemen’s “popular resistance” forces, which support president-in-exile Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, said late Sunday that 47 civilians had been killed – and more than 140 injured – when the Shia Houthi militia shelled parts of the southern Aden province.
Anadolu Agency, however, could not independently verify the claims.
Meanwhile, according to a local source, popular resistance forces have purged state institutions in Aden of Houthi elements.
“Popular resistance forces late Sunday managed to drive [elements of] the Houthi militia out of public broadcasting buildings, the intelligence agency, the naval base and the fourth military area located in the Tawahi district,” a local source told Anadolu Agency.
The source also said that popular resistance fighters had successfully “cleared the above-mentioned locations of Houthi snipers.”
Fractious Yemen descended into chaos last September when the Houthis overran capital Sanaa, from which they have since extended their influence to other parts of the country as well, including Aden.
The Houthi takeover prompted Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies in March to launch an air coalition, which for the last four months has pounded Houthi positions across the country.
Last Wednesday, Hadi’s government – most of which remains in Saudi capital Riyadh after having been driven from Aden earlier this year – announced the seizure of the city from Houthi control.
Clashes, however, remain ongoing in several parts of the city, which is considered the country’s commercial and economic capital.
