Heavy clashes in Yemen’s Taez, medical aid blocked – Islamic militants storm Aden supermarket

This news has been read 6845 times!

ADEN, Oct 25, (Agencies): Heavy clashes and air strikes in Yemen’s third city Taez left at least 36 fighters dead on Sunday, army sources said, as aid workers struggled to make medical deliveries. The fighting between Saudibacked pro-government forces and Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies killed at least 21 rebels and 15 loyalists, the sources said. New clashes broke out when loyalist forces tried to take back a presidential palace on a hill overlooking the city’s east. Loyalists control the centre of Taez, encircled by the Houthi rebels and allied forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The city in central Yemen has been a key battleground as forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi seek to regain ground from the Iran-backed Houthis. In a statement on Sunday, aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said essential medical supplies it hoped to deliver to a besieged enclave of the city were being blocked. “It is very frustrating that, after weeks of negotiations, we have made no progress in convincing officials of the need to provide impartial medical assistance to the victims of the ongoing fighting within this enclave,” Karline Kleijer, MSF’s emergency manager for Yemen, said.

She said that this was despite MSF’s support to health facilities in Houthi-controlled areas. Only six of 20 hospitals in the city of more than 600,000 continue to function due to the conflict, and often only partially, MSF said. “They lack staff, fuel and essential medicines, and are overwhelmed by the high numbers of wounded seeking to access their emergency services on a daily basis,” it said.

Intensifying fighting has left Taez in a desperate situation, with closed hospitals and acute shortages of medicine, food, water and fuel, the Red Cross said this week. The Houthis overran Yemen’s capital Sanaa in September 2014 and went on to seize control of several regions, aided by Saleh’s forces. In July, loyalists backed by the Saudiled coalition evicted the rebels from five southern provinces and have set their sights on Sanaa. At least 4,500 civilians have been killed in the conflict since March, when the coalition began targeting the rebels in air strikes.

Meanwhile, Islamic militants stormed a supermarket in Yemen’s southern city of Aden on Sunday, firing into the air and briefly taking hostages, security officials and witnesses said. About 30 militants arrived at the supermarket in four pickup trucks on Sunday afternoon, the officials and witnesses said. Shoppers fled when the militants fired in the air, but an unknown number were trapped inside when the gunmen locked the doors. The militants freed the hostages after less than an hour and left the scene. Some supermarket employees were slightly hurt when the militants kicked and punched them. The witnesses said the militants shouted that they were protesting the mingling of men and women in the supermarket and demanded that female employees cover their faces, in keeping with a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Asupermarket worker said the militants told them this was the final warning

This news has been read 6845 times!