Battle rages over Yemen’s air base

ADEN/SANAA:

Yemeni forces allied with a Saudi-led coalition fought Houthi militia for control of the country’s largest air base north of Aden on Sunday, local residents said, hours before a humanitarian truce declared by the coalition was meant to start.

The al Anad base has been held by the Houthi movement for much of a fourth-month-old civil war, and is regarded as a strategic asset commanding the approaches to Aden.

The Arab coalition on Saturday announced a ceasefire to take effect at 2059 GMT on Sunday evening for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. But the truce was cast into doubt when Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al Houthi was reported to have rejected it, arguing it would benefit only Islamic State and al Qaeda. “The battle goes on and the war is not over,” al-Houthi was quoted as saying  on the group’s Twitter account.

Meanwhile, Houthi forces have held up 16 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the WFP through Yemen’s Al Hudaydah province to support displaced persons in Taiz.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2015.