Cairo, Aden: The head of an international aid group said the number of casualties in Yemen from Al Houthi rebel shelling of a town near the southern port city of Aden has risen to almost 100 people killed.
Hassan Boucenine of the Geneva-based Medicins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, gave the new toll on Monday. He said the number of wounded is now at 200.
Boucenine said that the victims are mostly civilians and that MSF fears “attacks on civilians will continue.”
Al Houthis and their allies started shelling the town of Dar Sa’ad on Sunday after losing control of some of Aden’s neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, Yemeni loyalist forces said they advanced on Monday into the last district of Aden still held by the Al Houthis, seeking to flush out the remaining insurgents.
Fighters from the pro-government Popular Resistance “have regained control of most of Al Tawahi district”, including the presidential residence, said spokesperson Ali Ahmehi.
The southern fighters also pushed the Al Houthis and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of the region’s military headquarters and the naval base.
“A wide combing operation is under way to flush out” rebel holdouts, he said, adding that remaining insurgents had taken positions on several rooftops.
At least 17 rebels and 11 pro-government fighters have been killed in clashes since Sunday, military sources said.
Loyalist forces backed by Saudi-led warplanes have regained control of most of Aden since an assault dubbed Operation Golden Arrow began on Tuesday.
Clashes have however continued despite the government’s declaration on Friday of the city’s “liberation” after four months of ferocious fighting.
Rebel bombardment on Sunday killed 57 civilians in the Dar Sa’ad neighbourhood in the north of the port city, according to local health chief Al Khader Laswar.
Two ministers from the government in exile in Saudi Arabia returned to Aden this weekend, and on Sunday they toured the devastated city.
A Saudi-led Arab coalition launched an air campaign against the rebels in March after President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi was forced to flee to Riyadh.
More than 3,200 people have been killed in the fighting — many of them civilians, the UN says.
