ADEN: Saudi Arabia’s navy evacuated dozens of diplomats from Yemen and the United Nations pulled out international staff on Saturday after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes trying to stem advances by Iranian-allied Houthi fighters.

Residents reported heavy clashes between the Houthis and mainly Sunni tribal fighters in the south of the country, while the Saudi-led air campaign sought to stall a fresh offensive by the Shia group on Aden from the east.

Riyadh’s intervention, a surprise move from a conservative monarchy better known for flexing its muscle in oil markets than through military might, is planned to last a month but could extend for five or six, a Gulf diplomatic source said.

He said satellite imagery had shown that the Houthis had repositioned long-range Scud missiles in the north, close to the Saudi border and aimed at Saudi territory. A Yemeni official claimed Iran was providing parts for the missiles.

Dozens of diplomats were shipped out of Aden to the Red Sea port of Jeddah, Saudi television said, escaping the city where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had taken refuge until Thursday, when he left for Egypt to shore up Arab support for his crumbling authority.

The director general of Yemen’s Health Ministry, al-Khadher Laswar, said more than 62 people had been killed and 452 wounded in the city since Wednesday. Explosions at Aden’s largest ammunition depot on Saturday wounded nine people, he said.

In the capital Sanaa, which has been under Houthi control since September, more than 100 UN staff were evacuated, a United Nations source said. Airport staff said dozens of other foreigners working for international oil companies and NGOs also flew out to Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Houthi fighters seeking to overthrow the Western- and Saudi-backed Hadi have continued to make gains since the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against them on Thursday.

On Friday, the Houthis and allied army units gained their first foothold on Yemen’s Arabian Sea coast by seizing Shaqra, 100km east of Aden, allowing them to open a new front to march on the south’s main city.

Residents said a Houthi convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks and military trucks heading along the coastal road to Aden from Shaqra was attacked by warplanes before dawn on Saturday, and a number of vehicles were hit.

Local residents said the convoy had been stopped, but the Houthis were sending reinforcements to Shaqra and the advance along the main al-Mukalla-Aden road was expected to resume.

Saudi Arabia’s intervention is the latest front in its widening contest with Iran for power in the region. Their proxy struggle is also playing out in Syria, where Tehran backs Bashar al-Assad’s government against mainly Sunni rebels, and Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shia militias are playing a major role.

Iran has denied giving the Houthis military support, but Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, added to the sense of confrontation, saying: “Saudi Arabia is too small to be able to threaten Iran.”

“We utterly condemn Saudi Arabia’s attack on Yemen and it will end in failure,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

A Gulf diplomatic source said Iran was likely to retaliate indirectly, by encouraging pro-Iranian Shia activists to carry out armed attacks in Bahrain, Lebanon and eastern Saudi Arabia.

Yemen, by far the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula, has struggled to regain stability since mass protests in 2011 that eventually unseated Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years in power.

Mr Hadi led a UN- and Gulf-backed national dialogue that was discussing a new constitution when the Houthis took the capital and pushed him aside. The Gulf official said the aim of the Saudi-led intervention was to restore that process, and that the Houthis could have a role in it.

Saudi-led forces launched the air strikes on Thursday as Houthi forces appeared poised to take Aden. The strikes bolstered local militias defending the city but have not blunted the offensive completely.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

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