(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Yemeni loyalist forces recaptured a southern provincial capital from Shia rebels and their allies yesterday and a coastal town as they pressed an advance from second city Aden.
Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, had been held by troops of the renegade 15th Brigade loyal to ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh allied with the Houthi rebels.
Troops entered Zinjibar, some 50km east of Aden, after overrunning the brigade's barracks with support from Saudi-led coalition air strikes, military sources said.
They deployed tanks to secure the city and retook the coastal town of Shaqra with "little resistance" from rebel forces.
Zinjibar residents forced out by fighting that devastated their city returned to take stock of the damage, but many, including loyalist fighters, lost lives to mines planted by the rebels before they withdrew.
At least 19 people were killed and 163 wounded in the past two days in and around Zinjibar, Aden health chief Al Khader Laswar said. Similar explosions in Aden have reportedly killed dozens of civilians and wounded hundreds.
Zinjibar is the third southern provincial capital from which the rebels have been driven out since loyalists secured Aden in mid-July and Lahj provincial capital Huta on August 4. The southern province of Daleh is also controlled by Popular Resistance fighters loyal to exiled president Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. Aden was Hadi's last refuge before he fled into exile in Saudi Arabia in March.
Houthi-linked gunmen abducted 10 members of Islamist Al Islah party, including a former minister and women. Relatives' claims came as International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer visited the Old City of Sana'a, a Unesco World Heritage Site, to assess damage to buildings.
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