Southern People's Resistance militants loyal to Yemen's President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi move a tank from the Al-Anad air base in the country's southern province of Lahej. — Reuters * Arab League to discuss request for military intervention * Warplanes hit Aden district housing presidential compound * Hadi directing popular resistance against Houthi militias CAIRO/ADEN — The Arab League's deputy secretary-general said on Wednesday the regional body would discuss a proposal by Yemen's foreign minister who called on Arab states to intervene militarily to halt the Shiite Houthi militia's advance. “Yemen's foreign minister proposed the idea today ... in a meeting with the Arab League secretary general,” Ahmed Ben Hilli, told Al Arabiya Al Hadath television channel. “The issue will be presented tomorrow at the foreign ministers' level,” he said. Yemen Foreign Minister Riad Yassin told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite news network on Wednesday that Yemen had asked Arab countries to send air and naval forces to counter the Houthis. Yassin said the Houthis were paving the way for an Iranian takeover of Yemen. Yemen's President Abedrabbu Mansour Hadi was rushed to a “secure location” on Wednesday, a top aide said, as rebel forces bore down on his southern stronghold following clashes that sparked warnings of civil war. The aide said President Hadi was taken to a safe haven “within Aden,” denying that he had fled Yemen. Unidentified warplanes flying over the southern Yemeni city of Aden fired missiles at a neighbourhood where President Hadi's compound is located, residents said. Anti-aircraft batteries opened fire at the planes, they said. Mohammed Meram, Hadi's office director, told Reuters the president was safe and still in the city, and that the bombs fell harmlessly in the sea. “He is well and directing the southern and popular resistance in order to prevent the entrance of the militia forces into Aden,” Meram said. Houthi forces in Yemen backed by allied army units seized an air base on Wednesday and appeared poised to capture Aden in a lightning military push that has left Hadi with little territory. Aden residents were taking up arms at a weapons depot in preparation for a potential advance on the city by anti-government forces, a military source said. The mood in the commercially important community of up to a million people was apprehensive yet defiant. “The war is imminent and there is no escape from it,” said the 21-year-old, standing outside a security compound in Aden's Khor Maksar district, where hundreds of young men have been signing up to fight the advancing Shiite fighters. “And we are ready for it.” “Southerners are a peaceful people. But if the war comes, we cannot surrender,” said Jihad, an unemployed 24-year-old man, among those signing up to fight. “We are defending our land and honor and we will not let them repeat the 1994 scenario.” Officials around Hadi are resigned to battle, hoping for a miracle of foreign intervention to stop the fighting. — Agencies
