(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Southern Yemeni fighters backed by a Saudi-led air coalition seized more territory from Houthi militiamen near Aden yesterday, while three Saudi soldiers were killed when the kingdom came under shelling from Yemen, in an apparent Houthi attack.
The Saudi interior ministry said the three were killed and seven border guards wounded in Dhahran Aljanoub, a governorate in the Saudi border region of Aseer. It did not say who carried out the shelling, but Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh have carried out similar attacks on southwest Saudi Arabia during the four-month-old conflict.
Yesterday, southern Yemeni fighters and army units loyal to Hadi won full control of Houta town, capital of Lahej province north of Aden, in heavy clashes. Fourteen Houthis were killed and 40 captured.
Southern fighters and pro-Hadi army units also drove Houthi fighters from Lowdar town in southern Abyan province and captured several Houthi fighters.
In a separate incident, nine soldiers were killed and 30 wounded in a car bombing at an army base by suspected Islamist militants in southern Hadramout province.
The coalition said it aimed first to help bring Yemen's government back from exile to Aden and then return it to Sana'a if possible via peace talks with the Houthis. But if the Iranian-allied Houthis did not agree to quit Sana'a, the government would have the right to "get them out" by force, coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said.
Senior members of Yemen's administration in exile flew to Aden on July 16 to make preparations for the government's return, four months after it was pushed out by Houthi forces.
Asseri said the Houthis ought to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls for the Zaydi Shia movement to withdraw from cities under their control, return seized arms and allow Hadi to return from exile. The Houthis have rejected the resolution. UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien said over 4,000 people had been killed and 19,800 wounded in the war.
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