ADEN: Al Qaeda militants on Thursday seized a provincial airport in southeast Yemen while tribal forces took over an oil terminal, as the war-wracked country slid further into turmoil.

“The military unit in charge of security at the facility withdrew without resisting” Al Qaeda fighters, said an official at the airport in Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the militant network’s powerful Yemeni branch, earlier this month took advantage of the growing chaos to overrun Mukalla.

New vice president says he hopes to avert invasion

Military sources said AQAP now controls the whole of the city of more than 200,000 inhabitants, except for a camp of soldiers loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Saudi Arabia.

Elsewhere in Hadramawt province, tribal forces took control of a major oil terminal after soldiers protecting the site withdrew, a military source said.

The terminal, in the city of Al-Shihr, “fell under the complete control of tribal fighters after the military unit guarding it withdrew in the afternoon without resistance,” the source said.

Various armed groups have taken over parts of the deeply tribal country, where Houthi rebels are battling pro-Hadi forces.

Yemen’s newly-appointed Vice President Khaled Bahah, a respected figure named this week to shore up the country’s exiled government, said on Thursday he hoped to avert a Saudi-led invasion.

Arab military exercises planned for Saudi Arabia have raised speculation that Riyadh is considering land operations in Yemen, after three weeks of air strikes that failed to halt advances by Houthi fighters now in control of most of the country.

President Hadi named Mr Bahah, a former prime minister and diplomat, as his deputy this week in an attempt to widen support for his government, now exiled to Saudi Arabia since the Houthis seized the capital and launched a lightning advance on the south.

Mr Bahah is one of the few figures in Yemen whose popularity crosses regional and sectarian lines. Speaking in Riyadh at his first news conference since taking the post, he said: “We are still hoping that there is no ground campaign announced with the air campaign.”

The Houthis, who have formed an alliance of convenience with army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized the capital Sanaa in September and then advanced towards the southern port city of Aden.

With the Houthi advance showing no sign of slowing, the prospect is growing that Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies could launch a land war in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and Iran are already backing opposing sides in proxy conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Heavy fighting broke out in and around the central Yemeni city of Taiz on Thursday, residents said, pitting a pro-government army brigade and tribesmen against the Houthis and army units allied to them.

The combat opens up a new front for the Houthis, who have been fighting battles with militiamen across southern Yemen, and signals that control over army units by their ally, former president Saleh, may be weakening.

Mr Bahah called on Yemen’s armed forces to support the legitimate Yemeni government in exile, a message clearly aimed at army units still loyal to Mr Saleh, who ruled for 33 years until he was toppled in 2011.

“At this historic moment, we send our call to all the sons of the armed and security forces to act on behalf of the legitimate state,” said Mr Bahah.

Mr Saleh has teamed up with his old foes the Houthis against his former backer Saudi Arabia, displaying the cunning that enabled him to lead the fractious country for so long. However, the Saudi-led air strikes appear to have led some army units loyal to him to switch sides and back Mr Hadi’s government.

Mr Bahah said a ceasefire must precede any peace deal and no initiatives would be considered until Mr Hadi and his government returned to Aden.

However, there is no sign of compromise on either side.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2015

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