Yemen's Aden suffers amid clashes, aid deliveries delayed

ADEN (Reuters) - Explosions shook the suburbs of the Yemeni port city of Aden on Monday as residents reported a foreign warship shelling Houthi positions on the outskirts of the city. Street fighting and heavy shelling has for several days torn through the city, the last bastion of support for Saudi-backed president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Twelve days of bombing by a Saudi-led coalition has failed to halt the advance of the Iran-allied Houthis. Relief from outside appeared distant as the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters that it had yet to arrange a flight to deliver 48 tons of medical supplies despite gaining Saudi approval for the aid on Saturday night. Food, water and electricity shortages have mounted throughout the country but especially in Aden, where combat has shut ports and cut land routes linking the city to the outside. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which for days blamed the Saudi-led coalition for delays, told Reuters on Monday that Saudi Arabia had granted permission for an aid shipment before midnight on Saturday but problems in chartering planes would likely delay the aid's arrival to the Yemeni capital for at least a day. (Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Dubai and Mohammad Ghobari in Cairo; Editing by Hugh Lawson)