By The Daily Journalist.
The Huties Shiite rebel group is moving towards the port city of Aden, the shelter until now of President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi, after taking control of the airport to the villa and amid rumors on the whereabouts of the president. The US has acknowledged Wednesday that Hadi is not the a residential complex that witnesses cited by Reuters, said to have been looted by residents of Aden.
” He is not in his residence but am unable to confirm any other details about his location,” noted the State Department spokesman Jen Psaki US in a news conference. In the last hours sources close to the president insisted that the president remains in Aden. However, security sources cited by have admitted that Hadi has left the country aboard a boat.
With the imminent fall of Aden in Huties hands, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riad Yasin has called officially for the Arab League to send troops to stop the advance of Hutie rebels. Saudi Arabia has warned that “if the attack of Huties does not end peacefully, they will take the necessary measures to protect the region” stoking fears of an escalation deepens sectarian tensions that historically have proven damaging in the Middle East.
In their offensive movement, which controls Sanaa since September, they have succeeded in stopping the defense minister and have announced a reward of $ 100,000 for the capture of the president, who has left his palace in Aden bound for an undisclosed location.
According to the television channel Sky News Arabia, the holder of Mahmud Advocate Subaihi and one of his aides have been arrested in the southern city of Lahj, where clashes are reported between Hadi troops and Huties fighters backed by acolytes of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In the last hours the rebels have taken control of the air base of Al Anad, about 60 kilometers of Aden.
The facility was used by American and European forces as a center for the fight against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has its headquarters in Yemen. Both the US and UK special forces evacuated a few days ago after Al Qaeda captured a nearby village and Houthi as an offensive approach. Washington has acknowledged that affected the output of drone air strikes carried out in areas of the country with jihadist presence.
Meanwhile, the flight of Hadi has attracted a stream of contradictory information. Sources quoted by the AFP says presidential guard has ensured that Hadi helicopter that has left the palace where he remained from last month in the company of Saudi diplomats. Unidentified aircraft that bombed Aden’s neighborhood on Friday, is the residence of Hadi location.
The destination was not disclosed but sources close to the president have specified that he has moved to an operating room where he is in charge of examining the battle. Some sources, however, have speculated his departure. Hadi claimed Tuesday to the Security Council of the UN authorization for foreign military intervention and sought help from the Persian Gulf and the Arab League huti the imminent attack on Aden.
‘Mobilize’ of hutíes
The onslaught of the Huties rebel militia have intensified since Saturday. Its leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi called a “general mobilization”. The leader, backed by Iran, justified the military campaign by the need to fight Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the IS, that the four suicide attacks that killed Friday at least 154 dead and 350 wounded in two mosques were attributed to Sanaa.
On Sunday, shortly after his announcement, Huties stormed Taiz, the third largest city and gateway to the south. Since then the residents of the city have taken to the streets to protest the arrival of the Shiite group. On Tuesday, at least six demonstrators were killed and dozens wounded in the repression of Hutie militants who fired and threw tear gas to disperse the crowd.
During the last week of clashes between Huties-backed by loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh former Hadi supporters have resulted into an aerial battle. A few days ago unidentified aircraft bombed the residence of Hadi in Aden.
Since September, the rebel group has faced in its offensive to local Sunni tribal areas. On Sunday, in an emergency meeting, the Security Council condemned the ambitions of Huties and threatened to take “new measures” if hostilities cease. The UN mediator in Yemen, Jamal Benomar, warned that none of the actors in contention can take complete control of the country and predicted that continuing the conflict, Yemen could slip into “a combined scenario of Iraq, Libya and Syria “, territories where the IS has made progress in the chaos.
