ADEN: Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi returned to his country on Tuesday after six months in exile in Saudi Arabia, as loyalist forces fought to advance on the rebel-held capital.

Only hours earlier, warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition killed at least 21 people in Sanaa, a day after thousands of sympathisers took to the streets of the capital to celebrate a year since its seizure by the Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels.

Hadi, who is recognised by the international community, arrived on board a Saudi military aircraft that landed at an airbase adjoining the civilian airport in Yemen’s second city Aden.

Aden was Hadi’s last refuge when he fled the rebel-controlled capital after they took over the government.

Much of the city has been reduced to rubble by the months of ferocious fighting, with the rebels backed by former soldiers loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and several ministers returned last week to the port city, which was retaken from the rebels in mid-July.

The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels on March 26, and expanded its military campaign into a ground operation in July. Hadi’s return came two days before Eidul Azha.

In July, Hadi said in a televised speech on the eve of Eidul Fitr that “Aden will be the key to Yemen’s salvation”.

Since then, the Houthis have lost five southern provinces to Hadi loyalists, who are now waging a major offensive in oil-rich Marib province east of the capital.

The rebels still control much of northern and central Yemen.

Peace talks collapse: Forces loyal to President Hadi began an all-out offensive on Sept 13 against the Houthis in Marib, aiming to retake the capital a year after it fell to the insurgents.

A day later, Hadi’s government backed out of UN-brokered peace talks in Oman after saying only days earlier that it was going to take part.

Hadi’s office said at the time that the government would not attend talks unless the rebels first accept UN resolution 2216 demanding their withdrawal from territory they have captured.

Loyalists have also been locked in fierce fighting for control of Yemen’s third city Taez, which like Marib is seen as a crucial gateway to Sanaa.

The United Nations says nearly 5,000 people have been killed since late March in Yemen. The UN aid chief has called the scale of human suffering “almost incomprehensible”.

In the latest bloodshed, Saudi-led warplanes on Tuesday killed 21 people, including civilians, in a raid that targeted Houthi fighters in the Sabeen neighbourhood of Sanaa.

The death toll was likely to rise because some people were missing, another medical source said, as rescuers combed the rubble.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2015

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