• Hadi says reconquest of Yemen underway • Residents rejoice in newfound freedom • Defiant Saleh pledges to resist ‘conspiracy' ADEN — Yemen's southern province of Aden has been “liberated” from Houthi rebels, the country's exiled vice-president declared on Friday. Khaled Bahah said his government would work to restore basic services there. The city streets were filled with cars and pedestrians on Friday, as residents pinned down by deadly shelling day and night emerged in safety. “Praise God,” said 35-year-old fish seller Wasseem Al-Hiswa. “We're so happy we can return to our normal lives after such suffering for almost four months. But huge problems remain — water and electricity cut off often, so we're still suffering a lot,” he said. Ali Al-Ahmadi, spokesman for the local fighters in Aden, told Reuters that dozens of Houthi fighters had surrendered to the militiamen as they lost ground. Aden has for months seen heavy fighting between rebels and loyalist forces backed by Saudi-led airstrikes. A major offensive to drive the Houthis out of Aden was launched earlier this week and made successive advances. However fighting was continuing in parts of Aden, and rebels still held the northern and eastern entrances to the city, witnesses said. In a statement on his Facebook page, Khaled Bahah said: “The government announces the liberation of the province of Aden on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr. “We will work to restore life in Aden and all the liberated cities, to restore water and electricity.” Several residents displaced from their homes in Tawahi, a district in the west of the city which had been the last redoubt of the Houthis in Aden, told Reuters they had returned to their homes and that despite occasional gunfire the streets were controlled by anti-Houthi gunmen. Khaled Bahah, vice president of Yemen's exiled government in Riyadh, hailed the “liberation” of the city on his Facebook page, and several ministers and top intelligence officials touched down in the city on Friday to prepare it as a base to revive the shattered Yemeni state. Exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi praised the fighters and the Arab alliance, promising that the gains in Aden were the start of a drive to take back the country. “We will soon achieve a glorious victory in Yemen, our beloved country, in its entirety ... the victory in Aden will be the key to saving our cause,” Hadi said in a televised speech. The Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in September and pushed into Yemen's south and east in March and April in what they say is a revolution against a corrupt government and hardline militants. Their spread has been aided by most of Yemen's army, which remains loyal to former strongman president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted in Arab Spring protests in 2011. In a statement on his official twitter page, Saleh said Yemen would continue to resist the Saudi-backed campaign. “We will thwart one of the most dangerous conspiracies yet against our people ... no matter how long the aggression continues and the aggressors go to far in their war of extermination, no matter how long it lasts it will end in failure,” Saleh wrote. Fighters said they were advancing toward the Anad air base 60 km north of Aden with backing from airstrikes. Nevertheless, on the Muslim feasting holiday of Eid, food and basic supplies were being blocked at Houthi checkpoints on the city's outskirts, residents said. — Agencies
