The base was taken by Houthi rebels when the conflict intensified in the spring and was their main encampment in the country’s south. The pro-government forces took 45 prisoners in the battle for the base and were now marching north, toward another rebel-held military base called Labouza – the largest in the south, the military officials said.
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Before the war, the U.S. had used the base to carry out drone attacks against the local al Qaeda affiliate.
The Houthis stormed the capital city of Sanaa in 2014, forced Yemen’s parliament to dissolve and installed their own interim government, claiming the sitting government was corrupt.
Yemeni President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi said on Monday that advances in Yemen will continue forcefully until the liberation of the entire country, according to Al Arabiya News Channel.
TRNS reached out for comment from the Pentagon and have not received an update as of Tuesday evening.
“We can see al-Anad from here too”, he said, describing it as “a very strategic airbase”.
Pro-government forces recaptured the al-Anad airbase, north of Aden after intense fighting with Houthis in recent days.
DUBAI-The fight for control of Yemen’s largest air base raged Tuesday, with Saudi-led coalition fighters saying they were rooting out the last Houthi rebels holed up in the airfield. Yemen’s vice chairman and prime minister, Khaled Bahah, visited the town Saturday on the head of a delegation that included a number of Cupboard ministers. “Fighters recaptured the city from the Houthis last month”.
The United Arab Emirates reportedly sent 3,000 troops as well as armored vehicles and tanks to Yemen over the last week to aid fighters thwarting Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, in the country.
Saudi-led coalition advisers assisted government forces, spokesman Ali al-Ahmadi said by phone on Monday.
Saudi and Emirati troops were indeed assisting anti-Houthi forces on the ground by “operating numerous tanks and sophisticated military equipment”, because too few Yemeni troops were capable of operating such machinery, AP reported, citing military officials.
The Sunni Muslim Gulf states say the Houthis are a proxy for their archrival, Shi’ite Iran, and aim to restore Hadi to power in Sanaa.
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It’s all part of the turmoil and violence that has wracked Yemen for months, as the Houthis – a minority group that has long held sway in northern Yemen – increasingly asserted themselves elsewhere in the country, including taking over the capital of Yemen early this year. “The U.A.E. and the Saudis are putting a lot into this”, said a senior United States military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational reports.
