ADEN, Yemen — Pitched fighting intensified Monday in Yemen’s second-largest city, Aden, leaving streets littered with bodies, as Shiite rebels and their allies waged their strongest push yet to seize control of the main bastion of supporters of their rival, the country’s embattled president.
The fierce fighting in the southern port city on the Arabian Sea raises doubts over the possibility of landing ground forces from a Saudi-led coalition backing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to try to carve out an enclave to which Hadi, who fled the country two weeks ago, could return.
Saudi Arabia has asked Pakistan to contribute soldiers to the military campaign, as well as air and naval assets, Pakistan’s defense minister said Monday. Pakistan’s parliament is debating the request and is expected to vote in coming days.
Saudi Arabia has been leading an air campaign since March 26 against the Houthis and their allies, military units loyal to Hadi’s predecessor, ousted autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh. The International Committee for the Red Cross said Monday it was still unable to get medical supplies into the capital, Sana, or to Aden amid the air and sea blockade by the coalition.
On Monday, Houthi fighters and pro-Saleh forces attacked Aden’s Moalla neighborhood, one of the last districts held by Hadi loyalists where the presidential palace, port facilities, TV, government offices and a military camp are located. The districts are on a peninsula that juts into the sea, meaning Hadi’s forces are bottled up in the neighborhoods.
“We are jumping over dead bodies,” SAID Radwan Allawi, a pro-Hadi fighter. He said mosque loudspeakers were calling on Hadi’s supporters to defend Moalla.
“It’s intense street fighting, direct fire. The only difference between life and death may be an electricity pole behind which one can hide,” he said.
Pro-Hadi fighters destroyed three tanks deployed in Moalla by their opponents overnight, only to find new ones Monday. At least one residential building was in flames from the fighting. Coalition forces started an airdrop of weapons to Hadi’s forces Friday, but some military officials say the weapons are falling into the wrong hands.
The number of casualties was not immediately known, with medical facilities in the city overwhelmed and volunteers coming under fire.
Mohammed Abdo Hariri, a 50-year old resident of Aden, said he fled the city during a lull in the fighting and found its streets littered with corpses and burned-out armored vehicles. “This is a tragedy,” he said.
