Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said Monday that Saudi Arabia has asked that his military provide ground troops, planes and warships to help a coalition battling rebels in Yemen.

He spoke at the start of a parliamentary debate on whether to join the Saudi-led effort against Yemen’s Houthi rebels that began last month with airstrikes in support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The president fled the country last month and went to Riyadh.

Pakistan pledged to support the overall effort, but has not committed itself to any specific action or contribution. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said he would defend Saudi Arabia from outside attacks.

The fight against the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital last September before marching on the southern city of Aden last month, has included rebel attacks on Saudi border crossings.

Aden fighting

Meanwhile, witnesses say a foreign warship shelled targets in and around the southern Yemeni city of Aden Monday, as Houthi rebel fighters tried to shore up their positions inside the city and to the west.

Amateur video showed passersby trying to help residents wounded by shrapnel in the street of one Aden neighborhood after a barrage of mortar shells hit the area.  Medical sources quoted by Arab media say that more than 50 people have been killed in Aden in the past 24 hours.

As fighting continued in scattered pockets across the country, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes hit security headquarters and another military compound used by Houthi rebels in the capital, Sanaa.  Ammunition depots were also hit, shattering nearby windows and causing buildings to shake.

Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television reported that coalition airstrikes hit the al Anad airbase north of Aden, forcing Houthi fighters to flee the area. U.S. military personnel withdrew from the base several weeks ago, suspending operations for the drone program against al-Qaida militants.

Further east in Abyan province, al-Arabiya reported that tribal fighters loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi – who has fled the country and gone to Riyadh – surrounded the 115th Brigade headquarters, which had taken sides with the Houthis.

Houthis claim atrocities

The Houthis’ al Maseera TV reported that Saudi warplanes committed several atrocities in airstrikes overnight, showing what appeared to be residents pulling bodies from under the rubble of a building in the Houthi stronghold of Saada.

According to al Maseera, Saudi warplanes conducted 20 bombing raids since Sunday night over Saada, in the north of the country, as well as the coastal city of Hodeida and the interior region of Daala.

Houthi fighters in the south of the country, outside Aden, say they are protecting civilians and their property.  Amateur video showed the Houthis stopping and searching vehicles, as a Houthi fighter said they were battling Islamic extremists.

In other fighting, witnesses say unidentified foreign warships shelled coastal targets in the region of Aden.  The Houthis’ TV reported that the ships were shelling the port area, which is now under Houthi control.

In political developments, Zeid Shami, head of the Hezb al Islah parliamentary bloc, which is loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, urged the Houthis to “behave responsibly.”  The Houthis have arrested dozens of Hezb al Islah supporters in recent days.  Hezb al Islah supports the Saudi-led coalition.

Meanwhile, a pro-Houthi politician denounced what he called the “Saudi-Zionist-American aggression against Yemen,” which he said is “breaching Yemeni sovereignty and targeting women, children and old people.”

Humanitarian crisis

Amid a growing humanitarian crisis, International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Marie Claire Feghali told the Reuters news agency that the Saudi-led coalition had given the ICRC permission to fly medical supplies and personnel into the country, but that “not many companies or cargo planes are willing to fly into a conflict zone.”

One foreign pilot who had flown from Djibouti into the main international airport in Sanaa told journalists that he waited a long time for clearance to fly in.  Pakistan, India and several other countries have chartered planes during the past 24 hours to evacuate their nationals.

_{Ed Yeranian contributed to this report from Cairo}

  coalition, counter insurgency, houthi, pakistan, saudi arabia, war, yemen