Cairo: Cautious calm is prevailing on Thursday in Yemen’s port city of Aden, a day after clashes between presidential guards and southern separatists, local sources said.
Yemen’s Interior Minister Ahmad Al Mesiri said that government forces on Wednesday repulsed attacks by gunmen on the presidential palace and the Central Bank in Aden, which has been the provisional capital of the war-torn country since Iran-aligned Al Houthi militants controlled the capital Sana’a in late 2014.
“We will do our legal duty, dictated by our official responsibility in protecting the state institutions and the governorate of Aden,” the minister said in a statement, according to the official news agency Saba.
He cited coordination on the situation with the UAE and Saudi Arabia that co-lead an Arab alliance fighting Al Houthis in Yemen.
The alliance has said it categorically rejects destabilising acts in Aden.
“All sides are urged to resort to reason,give precedence to the national interest and work with the legitimate Yemeni government in order to overcome this crucial stage,” the alliance spokesman Turki Al Maliki said in a statement.
He added that such incidents come to the benefit of Al Houthis and other terrorist groups including Al Qaeda and Daesh “who have stoked flames of disunity and discord” among the Yemenis.
