Houthi shelling blamed for deaths in Yemen’s Aden

At least 45 people have been killed and scored injured in shelling by Houthi fighters in Yemen’s port city of Aden, sources tell Al Jazeera.

Sunday’s shelling, which targeted the city’s Dar Saad neighbourhood, came three days after Yemen’s government-in-exile declared the key southern city “liberated”, in the biggest victory yet of an Arab-led air campaign.

The conflict in Yemen has raged for almost four months now and killed more than 3,500 people.

Hisham Bashraheel, the deputy editor of Yemen’s Al Ayyam newspaper, told Al Jazeera that after Houthis sensed defeat, they started opening artillery fire and firing rockets on residential areas.

“Dar Saad, which is located in the north of Aden, is densely built and heavily populated with many refugees who left other parts of Aden in the last two months,” he said.

Bashraheel said: “Fourty-eight died and 182 were injured in the shelling. Among the dead, at least 10 are children. Although the city is largely liberated, there are still pockets of Houthis in the areas in the entrance to Aden. It is still unsafe for refugees to come back.”

Yemeni pro-government forces have been trying to tighten their control of Aden as Iran-allied Shia Houthi fighters mount resistance in some districts.

In Taiz, in the west of Yemen, a total of 28 Houthi fighters and fighters loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed in the morning, sources told Al Jazeera.

Two local resistance fighters died and 32 others were injured in different parts of the same city, they said.

Local fighters and army forces have reportedly been making more gains against the Houthis in recent days.

Warplanes from the Arab coalition have kept up the air campaign launched in March in support of the exiled government and against the Houthi fighters.