SANAA // Yemen’s foreign minister said the Saudi-led intervention was likely to last just “days” on Friday, as senior presidential aides claimed that thousands of troops allied to Riyadh were expected to soon reach Aden.
The two aides said the arrival of 3,000-5,000 forces was to ensure president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi’s safe return to the southern city of Aden, following his participation in a two-day Arab League summit which starts on Saturday.
Mr Hadi arrived in the Egyptian town of Sharm El Sheikh for the summit on Friday after being forced to flee Yemen for Saudi Arabia the previous day, following the advance of Iranian-backed rebels, known as the Houthis.
In a second day of attacks on Friday, Saudi-led air strikes targeted Saada province, the northern stronghold of the Houthis, aiming at locations where rebel leader Abdul-Malek Al Houthi might be. The grave of his brother and the founder of the rebel group, Hussein Al Houthi, was demolished in the strikes.
Military installations in the capital Sanaa and the provinces of Taez, Thale and Lahj, as well as Saada, were also hit repeatedly in an attempt to destroy the rebels’ weapon stores and neutralise their air defences.
On Friday, Ahmed Assiri, a Saudi spokesperson for the coalition, confirmed that UAE warplanes had “intensively” participated in the raids.
Britain will provide technical support for the intervention under an existing military relationship between London and Riyadh, foreign minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.
The air strikes have so far destroyed nearly 40 per cent of Yemen’s air defences, including radar installations, according to Yemeni Brig Gen Saleh Al Subaihi. They have also hindered the ability of the Houthis and military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to send reinforcements to the main front in the south, he said.
Speaking to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel on Friday, Yemeni foreign minister Riad Yassin said there was an “arrangement” for ground troops of the Saudi-led coalition to deploy in Yemen.
“It’s a comprehensive military operation,” he said, adding that Egyptian naval forces were heading to Bab Al Mandab – a vital shipping passage for oil.
When asked how long he thought the Saudi-led campaign would last, Mr Yassin replied: “I expect that this operation will not go on for long, I think it will be days.”
Meanwhile, several Egyptian military officials said that Cairo and Saudi warships were already at or near the strait of Bab Al Mandab.
Yemen’s ministry of health said on Friday that at least 39 people had been killed in total since the intervention began – mostly civilians.
On the ground, clashes between the Houthis and Sunni tribes continued on Friday in the Mareb and Bayda provincesm with nine rebels and four tribesmen killed.
In Aden, fighting between the rebels and militants loyal to Mr Hadi also continued, with at least eight people killed in clashes around the city’s airport.
Military commanders said pro-Hadi troops are now trying to regroup in Aden, Lahj and Thale provinces, before retaking areas in the south now in the hands of the Houthis.
At least 21 Houthis were also killed in Lahj province, about 15 kilometres north of Aden, when residents opened fire at their vehicles.
Lateon Friday, the still powerful Mr Saleh called for a ceasefire and the resumption of UN-brokered dialogue between warring parties, with talks to be held in the UAE.
It came the day after Mr Saleh’s General People Congress party, a key ally of the Houthis, released a statement in which it appeared to be distancing itself from the rebels.
In its statement, the GPC rejected the intervention but said the conflict in Yemen was the “result of a power struggle between ... parties that GPC has nothing to do with, from near or far, contrary to what [is] promoted by media outlets and some political forces”.
Earlier on Friday, tens of thousands of pro-Houthi protesters gathered in Sanaa, calling for ground troops to invade Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the air strikes. Speakers at the rally were joined by many protesters holding banners in vowing to join the Houthis in any potential invasion.
“The Saudis should be very worried because it is attacking the Yemeni people,” said top Houthi commander Khaled Al Madani at the rally. “We will not accept being attacked and will retaliate if the Saudi oppression is not halted.”
Following ten days of Riyadh air strikes on Houthi positions in 2009, nearly a hundred of the rebel fighters breached the Saudi border and headed to a military base at the port city of Jizan. At the base, the Houthi fighters clashed with Saudi forces and retreated back across the Yemeni border, with 40 rebels remaining behind to patrol mountains along the border. These fighters eventually left, however, when a ceasefire was declared two weeks later.
Meanwhile, away from the battlefield, the Houthis on Thursday ordered the closure of several opposition media outlets, also taking offline more than 12 opposition news sites, including the website of Islah, Yemen’s most powerful Sunni party.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press