ADEN – Jun. 10, 2015: At least 43 people were killed in heavy fighting in Yemen overnight and Wednesday between supporters of exiled President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi and the country’s dominant Houthi group, Reuters cited residents, tribal and medical sources saying.
The clashes erupted ahead of U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva next week aimed at ending a conflict that has drawn in Saudi Arabia and some of its allies on one side and the Iranian-backed Houthis and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh on the other.
Residents and fighters said fighters opposed to the Houthis advanced from a district of Aden known as ’workers’ island’ towards the port city’s Houthi-held international airport. They said five local fighters and 11 Houthis had died in clashes.
Eight fighters from an anti-Houthi force called the Southern Resistance were also wounded in the clashes, they said.
Residents said warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition flew sorties overnight against Houthi outposts in the Bir Ahmed area north of Aden, killing 12 members of the Zaydi Shiite Muslim group.
Saudi-led air strikes on Houthi fighters in the oil-producing Marib province also killed 10 Houthis, tribal sources told Reuters.
Representatives of Hadi’s government are scheduled to begin talks in Geneva with representatives of the Houthi group and Saleh’s General People’s Congress party Sunday, amid reports of disagreements about the agenda.
Mohammad Abdel-Salam, spokesman for the Houthi group, said late Tuesday that their representation at the conference was still under discussion and had yet to be finalised.
Humanitarian conditions have deteriorated sharply, with shortages of fresh produce, poultry, flour, fuel and other basic needs.
Some report dozens of deaths among the Houthis, who come from a highland region of Yemen and are unaccustomed to high temperatures, but the reports could not be immediately be verified by medical experts.