Aden, Dec 7 (AFP) Yemen's government has retaken a RedSea town from Huthi insurgents, officials said today, daysafter President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's administrationordered troops to advance on the rebel-held capital.
The war-torn Arabian Peninsula country has been plungeddeeper into turmoil by the killing on Monday of ex-presidentAli Abdullah Saleh by the Huthis after his alliance with theIran-backed insurgents collapsed.
Government troops backed by a Saudi-led militarycoalition launched an operation overnight and drove the Huthisout of Khokha, which fell to the rebels in January, an armycaptain and officials in the town said, requesting anonymity.
The news could not be independently confirmed.
The Yemeni capital Sanaa is now largely under the controlof the Huthis -- northern tribes with links to Iran -- afterclashes between the rebels and Saleh loyalists erupted lastweek.
Khokha lies between rebel-held Hodeida and government-controlled Mokha on the Red Sea coast and is central to theexpansion of government control over the strategic coastline.
The port of Hodeida is the main conduit for UN-superviseddeliveries of food and medicine to Yemen, where poverty hasbeen compounded by war and a blockade on ports and airportsimposed by the Saudi-led coalition.
Riyadh and its allies accuse their arch-rival Iran ofarming the Shiite rebels. Tehran denies the accusation.
More than 8,750 people have been killed since SaudiArabia and its allies joined the government's fight againstthe Huthis in 2015, triggering what the UN has called theworld's worst humanitarian crisis. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.