Yemeni President Vows to Retain South’s Stronghold

On the eve of the fourth anniversary of a now-shattered merger between North and South Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed Saturday to prevent the southern stronghold of Aden from seceding.

“We are now tightening the ring around Aden,” he declared, echoing claims that the north has repeatedly made since the war erupted more than two weeks ago. So far, they have proved to be exaggerated.

But this time, foreign reporters covering the battle for the key mountain base of Al Anad, 35 miles northwest of Aden, said southern forces were retreating there after several days of fierce combat. From the base, soldiers can control the main north-south highway.

As they pulled back in a well-organized retreat, southern troops pounded Saleh’s brigades with artillery and air strikes, said Ron Bagnulo, a cameraman for Worldwide Television News, who left Al Anad on Saturday. He said northern troops had moved into Al Anad, where troops were “looting everything they can get their hands on--gasoline, mattresses, blankets.”

If the southern forces are pushed out of the mountains, the way will be open for Saleh’s troops to break into the coastal plain where the southern stronghold of Aden lies.

Outside the port city, the south reportedly has amassed armor and artillery along with about 30,000 regulars and reservists in the city. It is also said to be building fortifications.

Saleh, an army general who ruled the former North Yemen from 1978 until the May 22, 1990, merger, said the south broke a unilateral cease-fire that his government had declared would begin at midnight Friday. A reporter confirmed that the south had ignored the cease-fire.

From its outpost in Hadramawt province, 200 miles northeast of Aden, the southern leadership declared Friday that the south was seceding. On Saturday, Aden Radio began broadcasting the signature tune and the call sign that it used before the 1990 union.

The merger had become increasingly strained since Vice President Ali Salim Bidh left the capital last August in a political rift with Saleh.

Bidh and his men have favored exploiting the south’s newly discovered oil wealth, which is expected to be greater than the north’s. Saleh’s tight control of oil revenue was a key factor in his feud with Bidh.

“After three weeks of pressure from a distance, the No. 1 objective has become the occupation of Aden, whatever it costs,” Saleh told Italy’s state-run RAI radio network in an interview Saturday.

Despite Saleh’s remarks, his foreign minister, Mohammed Salim Basindwah, later assured diplomats the north has “no intention of seizing Aden by force” but will encircle it.

A complete embargo would be difficult, however, because southern naval forces control the Arabian Sea coastline and could keep sea lanes open.