Agencies, Aden :Fighters loyal to Yemen’s president pushed Houthi fighters back from central Aden on Friday after they were reinforced with weapons parachuted into their beleaguered section of the southern port city by Saudi-led warplanes.The military setback for the Houthis came after days of advances in Aden, the last major foothold of fighters loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, despite a week-old Saudi campaign of air strikes to halt the Houthis and bolster Mr Hadi.Take a look: Yemen crisis: Houthi troops seize presidential palace in AdenSaudi Arabia, alarmed by the Houthis’ march on Mr Hadi’s powerbase in Aden, launched its air campaign nine days ago along with regional backers.The intervention marks Riyadh’s most assertive move yet to counter what it sees as a spread of Iran’s influence in the region, a proxy struggle also playing out in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.Aden residents said the Houthi fighters and their allies withdrew from the central Crater district as well as one of Mr Hadi’s presidential residences which they took 24 hours earlier.A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, said the logistical support airdropped at dawn on Friday had helped turn the tide for Mr Hadi’s fighters.”They received the support and they were able to change the situation on the ground, driving the Houthi militias out of the palace and the areas that they had briefly taken control of,” he told a news briefing in Riyadh. The crates of light weapons, telecommunications equipment and rocket-propelled grenades were parachuted into Aden’s Tawahi district, on the far end of the Aden peninsula which is still held by Mr Hadi’s loyalists, fighters said.The Houthis, fighting alongside soldiers loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, emerged as the strongest force in Yemen after they took over the capital Sanaa in September. After they turned on Aden last week, Mr Hadi fled abroad and has watched from Riyadh while his remaining authority has eroded.Meanwhile, fierce fighting for control of Yemen’s main southern city Aden has left at least 185 people dead and more than 1,200 wounded, including many civilians, a medical official said Saturday.The port city, a last foothold of supporters of absent President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, has been shaken by more than a week of clashes between Shiite rebels and loyalist militia backed by Saudi-led air strikes.At least 185 dead and 1,282 wounded from the fighting have been counted in hospitals in Aden since March 26, the city’s health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar said. Three-quarters were civilians, he added.The toll does not include victims among the Huthi Shiite rebels and their allies who do not take their casualties to public hospitals, he said.
