SANAA, Yemen — Seizing an opportunity amid the chaos, al-Qaida fighters early Thursday staged a jailbreak in a city in southern Yemen, freeing some 200 prisoners thought to include many of their own comrades, officials and residents said. ADVERTISING SANAA,
SANAA, Yemen — Seizing an opportunity amid the chaos, al-Qaida fighters early Thursday staged a jailbreak in a city in southern Yemen, freeing some 200 prisoners thought to include many of their own comrades, officials and residents said.
Meanwhile, the struggle for the strategic port of Aden intensified, with Shiite Muslim insurgents continuing a military push despite a concerted campaign of air and naval strikes by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which is trying to crush the rebellion.
The attack on the prison took place in the port of Mukalla, the country’s fifth largest city, in Hadhramaut province, a stronghold of al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate. There were also reports that banks in the city were looted.
The episode could point to a dangerous new phase in the battle between Houthi insurgents and the Saudi-led coalition. Analysts had already warned that armed groups like al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate or militants professing loyalty to the Islamic State would likely seek to capitalize on the disorder generated by the ongoing fighting.
The Houthis’ offensive has been going on since last year, but the Saudi response was galvanized when the insurgents began marching on Aden, which had been the last stronghold of Western-backed President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. Hadi fled the country last week and the Saudi-led campaign of airstrikes began the next day.
The Houthis are aligned with Shiite Iran and with the country’s former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was deposed in 2012 but who maintained considerable power as well as a grip on many elements of the country’s military. These military units, many of them elite forces, have helped the Houthis cement their gains after they seized the capital, Sana, last year.
The tumult in Yemen has derailed a U.S. campaign of drone strikes against the country’s branch of al-Qaida, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. It is considered one of the terrorist group’s most active and dangerous franchises.
The Yemen fighting has also heightened regional sectarian rivalries, with Iran bitterly denouncing the role of Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf’s main Sunni Muslim power. Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies have been alarmed by U.S.-led efforts to strike a nuclear accord with Tehran, and with other Iranian muscle-flexing in conflicts including the civil war in Syria.
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Special correspondent Al-Alayaa reported from Sanaa and Times staff writer King from Cairo.
