RIYADH/SANAA — Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi said on Monday that advances in Yemen will continue forcefully until the liberation of the entire country, according to Al Arabiya News Channel. Hadi said the advances against Houthi militias were made possible thanks to the members of the Popular Resistance as well as the national army. Yemeni sources said that that Hadi was closely monitoring the developments in Yemen. On Monday, pro-Hadi forces seized the country's largest military base from the Iranian-backed Houthi militias after heavy clashes which left dozens killed or captured. The recapture of the Al-Anad military base opens up the road north to the city of Taez, where Houthi militias have been locked in combat with local fighters siding with Hadi. As Al-Anad fell, rebel fighters fled to the nearby hills, officials said. Yemen's Defense Ministry announced the "liberation of Al-Anad military base" in a statement late Monday, thanking the Saudi-led coalition that has been targeting the Houthis in an air-campaign since March. Ministry officials and military leaders from Hadi's government in exile in Saudi Arabia, returned to the southern city of Aden last week and the statement was issued from there. In a statement carried by rebel-controlled news agency SABA late Monday, the rebels denied the base had been taken. It took several days to capture Al-Anad, with pro-government troops, backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, pushing toward the base as coalition airstrikes cleared the path for their advance. Military officials said allied fighters had cut off the main road between Al-Anad and the embattled city of Taez for the first time since the Houthis took control of it in March. After months of fierce fighting, pro-government forces also recently pushed rebels out of Aden and advanced in Taez, Yemen's third-largest city. Since last month, they have received military supplies shipped by sea to Aden, including new heavy and medium weapons and ammunition such as tanks, artillery, missiles and armored vehicles in shipments from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In Geneva, the UN refugee agency said 100,000 people have fled the fighting in Yemen over the past four months. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters that the agency only has one fifth of the funds needed to meet this outflow. — Agencies
