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Yemeni president appoints vice commander to retake rebel-held capital

Xinhua, February 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has appointed the vice commander-in-chief in a bid to retake the rebel-held capital Sanaa, the official Saba news agency reported on Tuesday.

The top military general Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar was sworn in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Tuesday, vowing to fight the rebels and recapture Sanaa, said Saba.

Al-Ahmar defected from the Yemeni army and joined the uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.

He was forced into exile after rebels controlled the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The Iran-allied rebels, backed by Saleh's loyalist forces, seized Sanaa in September 2014, and forced Saudi-backed Hadi along with his government into exile.

Officials close to Hadi said the decision aims to rally armed tribes loyal to the general Al-Ahmar against the rebels.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have advanced to within 50 km from Sanaa earlier this month, after recapturing military posts in Nihm district and its mountains overlooking the rebel-held capital from the northeast.

The advance, backed by the Saudi-led warplanes, came very slowly because of the rebel-planted minefields in the roads ahead towards Sanaa.

The Saudi-led coalition started daily air bombing on the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allied forces since March 2015, vowing to drive out the rebels and retrieve Sanaa.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes, half of them civilians. Endit