SANAA: Army forces loyal to Yemen's President Abed Rabbo Abdul Hadi seized a border crossing with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, officials in the area and witnesses said, dealing a rare blow to the country's Iran-backed Shiite Houthi group.
The Houthis and their allies control three other crossings with the Kingdom, which has led an anti-Houthi alliance in a three-month bombing campaign against the group to restore Hadi to power.
Eyewitnesses reported that thousands of Yemenis gathered there to flee the country after the Wadee'ah crossing in eastern Hadramawt province changed hands amid combat.
After restoring the crossing, anti-Houthi fighters will join popular resistance forces who are fighting in the governorates of Marib and Al-Jawf, sources told Al-Hadath.
They are also preparing for a military move to storm Aden, the same sources added. Fighting between Saudi and Houthi forces has closed all other entry points to Yemen's neighbor, and one border facility has been destroyed in artillery exchanges.
A blockade of Yemen's sea and airports by the Arab coalition has created a humanitarian crisis in which food, fuel and medicine are scarce.
Saba, the Houthi-run news agency, quoted a military official as saying the border area had been taken by "a group of gunmen, Al-Qaeda militants and mercenaries.”