ADEN — A Saudi military plane loaded with relief for fighters loyal to Yemen's deposed president landed at Aden airport on Wednesday, an airport official said, the first flight to reach the embattled port city in four months. Saudi navy chief was aboard the plane, a Yemeni military official said. “The arrival of this aircraft bearing aid is the beginning of an airlift of aid and humanitarian supplies between Saudi Arabia and Yemen,” the Yemeni official quoted the Saudi navy chief as saying. Saudi-backed militiamen, meanwhile, exchanged heavy artillery fire with their Houthi foes in the northern approaches to Aden on Wednesday. The militiamen said they were advancing toward Anad air base, Yemen's largest, 60 km north of Aden, and were close to linking up with other anti-Houthi fighters nearing the facility from its northern end. The fighting and a near-blockade have pushed the humanitarian situation in Yemen to the brink of disaster but loyalist advances in Aden, scene of the heaviest combat, have opened it up to aid and guns. “A Saudi military plane landed at Aden airport this afternoon carrying aid to the popular resistance forces, in the first flight there since March 25,” the airport official said. Loyalist fighters backed by airstrikes from a Saudi-led Arab alliance wrested Aden, Yemen's main port, from the dominant Houthi group last week and Yemen's government in exile aims to turn Aden into its base to take back more territory from the Iran-allied group. The foreign intervention and war raging across the country have killed over 3,600 people. Last week's loyalist gains were heavily supported by Gulf Arab training, arms shipments and airstrikes. Local fighters said 140 combat vehicles arrived from the Gulf on Wednesday. A United Nations chartered ship carrying 500,000 liters of fuel and other goods also berthed safely in Aden port on Wednesday, a World Food Program spokeswoman said. On Tuesday, a UN ship docked in Aden carrying much-needed relief supplies, the first UN vessel to reach the city in four months. Another ship sent by the UAE also delivered medical aid. A humanitarian ceasefire declared by the United Nations earlier this month failed to take hold. The United Nations warned then that the impoverished country was just “one step away from famine”. More than 21.1 million people — over 80 percent of Yemen's population — need aid, with 13 million facing food shortages, according to the UN. It says the conflict has killed more than 3,640 people, around half of them civilians, since late March. — Agencies
