ADEN — Hundreds of Iranbian-backed rebels have fled the Al-Anad military and air base on Monday as loyalist forces recpatured the key base near Aden, a senior military official said. Earlier reports said Gulf troops from the Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels entered the southern port of Aden. A military source said the troops arrived in Yemen's second city on Sunday with tanks and armored vehicles. He gave no further details.
The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Monday that a total of 1,500 troops, most of them from the United Arab Emirates, had reached Aden.
The UAE is a member of the coalition which has carried out more than four months of airstrikes against the rebels who overran much of Yemen in March, forcing President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi into Saudi exile.
Hadi's government announced the liberation of Aden in mid-July after loyalist forces freshly trained and equipped in Saudi Arabia helped drive out the rebels and their allies.
The Al-Anad base, north of Aden, is strategically important and housed US troops overseeing a drone war against Al-Qaeda in Yemen until shortly before the rebels overran it in March.
A source said that Saudi-led warplanes provided air cover for the loyalist forces, who launched the offensive to retake Al Anad from a mountainous region west of Al-Anad.
In Sanaa, the leader of the Iran-backed rebels said a political settlement with the exiled government was still possible after what he called the “short-term” setback of their ouster from Aden.
Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said the rebels would welcome a new attempt by a third party to broker a deal after the failure of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva in June.
“A political settlement is still possible,” Houthi said in a speech broadcast by the rebels' Al-Masira television channel Sunday.
“We would welcome any (mediation) effort by a neutral party -- Arab or international,” he said.
Houthi played down the withdrawal of the rebels and their allies from Aden in mid-July after four months of ferocious fighting.
“The advance made by the enemy in Aden will collapse,” he said.
“It is a short-term situation which we will overcome.”
Riyadh has justified its military intervention against the rebels and their allies, saying that they posed a threat to the Kingdom's security. — Agencies
