Yemen’s embattled president flees stronghold as rebels advance
Houthi fighters ride a patrol truck in Sanaa March 25. Houthi forces in Yemen backed by allied army units seized a key air base on Wednesday and appeared poised to capture the southern port of Aden from defenders loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, local residents said. (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen’s embattled president was pushed deeper into crisis Wednesday after fleeing a last-ditch refuge as advancing Shiite rebels seized a key air base to add another prize to their expanding territory.
The whereabouts of Western-allied President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was not immediately clear.
But any further disintegration of Hadi’s power would tip Yemen closertoward a civil war involving various factions, including a powerful branch of al-Qaeda. Yemen also offers a potential proxy battlefield for the wider regional rivalries between Shiite power Iran and the Gulf Arab states backed by Washington.
Senior security officials told The Washington Post that Hadi had left his residence in Aden, the country’s second-largest city, where his government sought a foothold after being driven from the capital, Sanaa, by the Houthi rebels believed backed by Iran.
Yemen’s foreign minister, Riyadh Yaseen, told Al Jazeera from Egypt that Hadi was in “secure” place in Aden.
But Hadi’s precise location remained in doubt even as Houthi-controlled state television said a nearly $100,000 bounty was offered for the president’s capture.
Some members of Hadi’s inner circle, meanwhile, appeared to run out of room. Rebels said they had captured the country’s defense minister and a top aide near Aden.
The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.
Hadi’s government has appealed for military intervention from the gulf’s military alliance, which is anchored by neighboring Saudi Arabia, and has called on the United Nations to authorize foreign armed forces to enter Yemen.
But gulf states have given no signals of plans for an immediate mobilization to aid Hadi, and the last units of U.S. and British commandos have been pulled from Yemen amid the widening instability.
The unraveling of Hadi’s power over the past months dealt a significant blow to U.S.-led efforts to wage drone attacks and other pinpoint strikes against suspected strongholds of the Yemen-based branch of al-Qaeda, which is considered among the terror group’s most active networks.
Meanwhile, the Houthi rebels — seen as foes of al-Qaeda — have claimed increasing territory since taking control of the capital in January. Hadi’s government, backed by loyalist forces, relocated to the southern port of Aden.
The security officials said Hadi fled his compound just hours after the rebels announced they had taken the important al-Anad airbase, located less than 20 miles from Aden. The airfield was once a main link in the U.S.-directed drone missions against al-Qaeda.
Last week, suicide bombers killed at least 137 people at two Shiite mosques in Sanaa linked to the Houthi rebels.
Murphy reported from Washington.
