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YEMEN OFFICIALS SAY SHIITE rebels and their allies randomly said shelling since early dawn kept them
hiding at home.
KILLSREBEL SHELLING shelled an area north of Aden on Sunday, “It’s been one shell after the other since
killing at least 45 people and wounding the morning. We are feeling the house
AT LEAST over 100, officials said. is going to collapse over our head,” said
The rebels are pushing back against an Arwa Mohammed, a resident of Sharqiya,
45 IN ADEN offensive by their Saudi-backed rivals that who has been locked up in one room with
uprooted them from areas they control in her seven-member family for safety. She
the strategic port city last week, including said a shack nearby was burning from the
the Aden international airport. bombing, adding that its residents fled
only minutes before the shell landed.
The officials said hundreds of residents
fled Dar Saad, north of Aden, amid shell- “Balls of fire are falling over our heads
ing that intensified Sunday from the reb- amid screams of children and women,”
els. They said at least 45 people, believed said Anis Othman, a neighbor of Moham-
to be civilians, were killed. Ambulances med. “Why all that shelling? There are no
rushed to various areas in the town, taking weapons or fighters here. They (rebels)
the wounded to various hospitals, includ- want to terrorize us and drive us out. This
ing some operated by the international aid is only rancor and hate.”
group Doctors Without Borders. Hassan Boucenine, the head of Doctors
The officials spoke on condition of ano- Without Borders in Yemen, said the situ-
nymity as they weren’t authorized to brief ation is “very, very difficult,” describing
journalists. random shelling in Dar Saad that is com-
ing from the north and east, wounding
Abdu Mohammed Madrabi, a 65-year old mostly civilians. He said his medical fa-
resident of the town, said he was in line cilities have received 50 wounded people
outside the post office to collection his and 25 corpses.
pension when the shells hit, causing chaos
in the area. Madrabi, who was wounded in “There will be more,” he said.
the neck, back and leg, said many private The Saudi-backed fighters, backed by
cars carried the wounded to hospitals Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, pushed the
because ambulances couldn’t cope. rebels out of Aden’s airport and two ma-
jor neighborhoods last week. The rebels
“We are now sitting on the floor of the vowed to retaliate.
hospital” waiting for treatment, he said. Aden has been the scene of some of the
The shelling was intense in the neighbor- war’s most intense ground fighting since
hood of Sharqiya, hundreds of meters March.
(yards) from the post office. Residents
ARUBA TRAVELLER - Monday, July 20 2015 11INTERNATIONAL
