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Hadi loyalists dislodge militants from army base in Yemen's Aden airport

Wednesday, 06 July 2016 12:17 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 06 July 2016 5:33 PM ]

Forces loyal to the resigned Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, guard Aden's international airport on January 7, 2016. ©AFP

Forces loyal to the resigned Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, have managed to push militants out of the army headquarters at the international airport of the southern port city of Aden following an hours-long firefight.

"Troops and special forces have regained control of the base after pushing back the extremists, several of whom were killed in the fighting," the military base commander, General Nasser Sarie, told AFP on Wednesday.

The recapture of the Solaban base came after four hours of heavy gun battles, during which pro-Hadi troops exchanged rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire with the militants. The Saudi-backed forces also came under mortar fire from outside the airport perimeter.

The militants, who were wearing military uniforms, had seized the base earlier on Wednesday after detonating two car bombs that left at least 10 soldiers dead.

According to security sources, at least six Yemeni troops and around 20 militants were also killed during Wednesday’s exchange of gunfire at the airport.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident, but the Daesh Takfiri terrorists and al-Qaeda militants have been active in the southern parts of the country.

Forces loyal to the resigned Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, gather at the scene of a bomb attack in Aden on April 28, 2016. ©AFP

The extremists have exploited the Saudi military aggression, which was launched to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate Hadi.

The impoverished Arabian Peninsula country has seen almost daily military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, with internal sources putting the toll from the bloody aggression at about 10,000.

The Houthi fighters took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country.

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