A Saudi military plane landed in Aden on Wednesday as the airport reopened in Yemen's second city after four months of fighting, the transport minister said, according to Agence France-Presse.

“This is the beginning of operations at the airport,” Badr Basalma told reporters at the airport, which Saudi-backed loyalists recaptured last week following fierce fighting with Houthi militias and their allies.

Earlier on Wednesday, the leader of the Iranian-backed Houthi militias reportedly ordered them to withdraw from Yemen's southern city of Ibb, according to Al Arabiya News channel. 

The militias were ordered to leave the southern city and return to Saada, the group’s stronghold in northern Yemen.

Also in Ibb, heavy clashes between forces loyal to Yemen’s President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the militias led to the killing of a Houthi leader known as Abu Mahammed al-Ghayli.

The latest developments come a day after forces loyal to Hadi made significant advances in the country’s third largest city of Taez.

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's war on March 26 in an effort to stop Houthi and pro-Saleh forces taking Aden, the last city nominally controlled by exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government, and to restore him to power in Sanaa.
 

Photo: A Saudi military cargo plane is seen at the international airport of Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, bringing freshly trained reinforcements and weapons for forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi who are fighting Houthi rebels. (REUTERS)

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