Yemen’s Houthi rebels made broad gains in the country’s south and east on Friday despite a second day of Saudi-led air strikes meant to check the Iranian-backed militia’s efforts to overthrow the president, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.

Shia Muslim Houthi fighters and allied army units gained their first foothold on Yemen’s Arabian Sea coast by seizing the port of Shaqra 100km (60 miles) east of Aden, residents told Reuters.



The advances threaten Hadi’s last refuge in Yemen and potentially undermine the air campaign to support him.

The losses came as the spokesman for the Saudi-led operation, Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, told a press conference in Riyadh that defending the Aden government was the campaign’s “main objective”.

“I want to confirm that the operation itself has as its main objective to protect the government in Aden,” Asseri said.

“The operation will continue as long as there is a need for it to continue,” he said.

At a previous briefing, he said a ground campaign was not planned but did not rule out the possibility. “At these current stages, there is no planning for operations by ground forces but, if the situation necessitates it, the Saudi ground forces are ready and the forces of friendly states are ready and any form of aggression will be answered,” he said.

Warplanes targeted Houthi forces controlling Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and their northern heartland. Asseri said planes from the United Arab Emirates had carried out their first strikes in the past 24 hours, although two Saudi pilots were rescued from the sea by the US military after ejecting from their fighter planes because of technical problems.

In a boost for Saudi Arabia, Morocco said it would join the rapidly assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Houthis. Pakistan, named by Saudi Arabia as a partner, said it had not decided whether to contribute.

US president Barack Obama expressed his support for the Saudi-led military action in a phone call with Saudi King Salman on Friday, the White House said.



Forces loyal to president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi watch as an armoured vehicle belonging to Shia Houthi fighters is burned on the streets of Aden. Guardian

Riyadh’s military intervention is the latest front in a growing regional contest for power with Iran that is also playing out in Syria, where Tehran backs Assad’s government against mainly Sunni rebels, and Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shia militias are playing a major role in fighting.

Sunni monarchies in the Gulf are backing Hadi and his fellow Sunnis in the country’s south against the Shia advance.

Yemen’s powerful ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose military units fight alongside the Houthis, called on Friday for a cessation of hostilities by both sides, according to a statement carried by his party’s website.

The Yemeni foreign minister, Riyadh Yaseen, said the air campaign could end within days.

He said the door was still open for dialogue with the Houthis, while in a Facebook posting, Hadi urged Yemenis to be patient and predicted the Houthis would soon be gone.

But the Houthis’ entry into Shaqra means they control all the land entries to the port of Aden.

During a week of intense fighting, the Houthis have taken the Red Sea port of al-Mukha to Aden’s north-west, and the city’s northern outskirts, suggesting Aden is danger despite the air strikes.

Eyewitnesses in Sana’a said Houthi fighters and allied military units were repositioning some anti-aircraft units at police stations, causing panic among residents who fear they will become targets for air strikes.

Residents said aircraft had targeted bases of republican guards allied to the Houthis around Sana’a, and also struck near a military installation that houses missiles.

The republican guards are loyal to Saleh, who retains wide power despite having stepped down in 2011 after Arab spring protests.

Earlier air strikes south of the city and in the oil-producing Marib region appeared to target military installations affiliated with Saleh.

Warplanes also hit two districts in the Houthis’ northerly home province of Saada, tribal sources said.

The coalition began air strikes on Thursday to try to roll back Houthi gains and shore up Hadi, who has been holed up in Aden after fleeing Sana’a in February.

Hadi left Aden on Thursday to attend an Arab summit in Egypt on Saturday, where he aims to build Arab support for the air strikes.

On Friday evening a US defence official said the US military had rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their F-15 fighter jet over the Gulf of Aden. He said the two were rescued in international waters by a helicopter from Djibouti after Saudi Arabia requested assistance.