Agencies
Cairo/Aden
Saudi forces and Yemen’s Houthi militia traded heavy artillery fire which destroyed part of the main border crossing between the two countries overnight, residents said yesterday, an escalation of the two-month war.
The Haradh border crossing, the largest for people and goods between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, was evacuated amid shelling which razed its departure lounge and passport section, witnesses said.
Residents of several Yemeni villages in the area left their homes and fled from the frontier, which has turned into a frontline between the kingdom and the Iran-allied rebels.
Arab air raids hit military bases and weapons stores in the capital Sanaa and local officials said a mid-level Houthi commander, Abu Bassam al-Kibsi, was killed in an air strike in the central province of Raymah.
Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition bombing the Houthis and backing southern Yemeni fighters opposing the group and loyal to the exiled government in Saudi Arabia headed by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Local fighters combating the Houthis in Yemen’s south reported Saudi-led air strikes on a major air base controlled by the group in Lahj province and say they killed eight Houthi fighters in an ambush in Dalea province yesterday.
Residents in the central city of Taez said Houthi forces and pro-Hadi fighters fired tank and artillery shells at each other throughout the city overnight, killing five civilians.
The Houthis seized control of a military base on a strategic mountaintop in the centre of the city, eyewitnesses said.
A ship carrying 460 tonnes of Emirati humanitarian aid docked yesterday in Aden.
The United Nations, which is hoping to host a conference on Yemen in Geneva next week, says that more than 1,600 people have been killed in the country since late March.
Close to half a million more have been displaced and, although some aid trickled in last week during a five-day ceasefire, people still lack basic needs, including water, electricity and fuel.
The shipment, including medical and food supplies, is the second from the United Arab Emirates following the delivery of 1,200 tonnes of aid last week, said local aid co-ordinator Ali al-Bikri.
Another ship carrying 400 tonnes of diesel also arrived on Friday, said Bikri, who was appointed by Yemen’s government-in-exile.
“Aden needs urgently at least 200,000 food rations for the displaced,” Bikri added.
Sporadic clashes rocked Aden yesterday, killing two civilians and six rebels, after a day of fierce fighting that raged in the north, east and west of the city.
Air raids also struck several targets in the evening, including the landing strip at Aden airport and the city’s northern suburbs, officials said.
The United Nations has said it will host talks in Geneva on Thursday aimed at relaunching a political dialogue among Yemeni rivals, despite uncertainty over who will attend.
The Yemeni president laid out his government’s demands to attend the talks in a letter on Saturday to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, insisting the Houthis must withdraw from territory they have seized.
He reiterated his position yesterday during talks in Riyadh with the UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
The embattled leader demanded full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2216.
The April resolution called on the Houthis to relinquish territory they seized and surrender weapons they took from the army and other state institutions.
A fighter from the Popular Resistance Committees monitors a street in the southern Yemeni city of Taez during clashes with Houthi rebels yesterday.
