Pro-Hadi fighters score more victories in Yemen

ADEN: Fighters loyal to Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi seized about 10 southern villages from Houthi forces on Tuesday, maintaining momentum in their offensive a day after capturing the country’s biggest air base, residents and loyalist sources said.
Clashes took place across the southern province of Lahj, most of which is now back in the hands of the Saudi-backed loyalist forces.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi has already acknowledged that the Iran-backed group had suffered a defeat in Aden in recent weeks and said he was open to a political solution to the crisis.
The comments came during a televized address on the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV channel and reflect a change in Houthi’s usual rhetoric, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
Militias siding with President Hadi and army units trained and equipped by Gulf countries have made advances against the Houthis in recent weeks.
Boosted by Saudi-led air strikes, they drove the Houthis from the port city of Aden last month then pushed northward and recaptured the Al-Anad air base from Houthi forces on Monday after beseiging it for days.
“The next step for the popular resistance and army forces after liberating Aden is the clearing of the provinces of Abyan and Lahj,” said a commander in the anti-Houthi forces.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, renewed his call for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict, based on a plan involving Houthi withdrawals from main cities to pave the way for the exiled government’s return.
“There must be a withdrawl, a cease-fire and an agreement on them both,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed told Egyptian TV channel CBC.
“The government (must) return gradually to perform its duties in infrastructure and services...it must return to Sanaa and to the big cities, that’s essential,” he said.
On Saturday, a military source in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that some members of the Republican Guards are starting to defect from Houthi ranks and refusing to take orders from their Houthi commanders.
“This moment was inevitable and expected given the substantial differences between the Republican Guards and the Houthi militias. They could never have formed a single military force together,” the source said.
Other sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat in recent days that a rift has opened between former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthis over who has jurisdiction in different parts of the country currently occupied by a coalition of Saleh loyalists and the Houthi group, with the Houthis taking over sole control of several areas and government entities.