Photo: ِِِBuildings were destroyed by Al-Houthis militias in Yemen (By YemenOnline)

Yemeni refugees cheered and ululated as their plane dipped towards Aden, returning them to a precarious life in their home city three weeks after fighting there ended and months after most of them fled.

But for many refugees returning to a city without regular water or electricity and shattered by months of intense street fighting, the joy of being home was tempered by grief at the sight of destruction and uncertainty over the future.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe the damage," said Muheeb Ishaq quietly, gazing in horror at the ruined terminal building and the shredded remains of hangars.

His father, who was also on the flight, had to turn his face away with grief before saying: "Look what they did! I have known all this since I was born. It was a paradise."

Their flight from Jordan, one of the first by Yemen Airways to reach Aden, was paid for by the country's exiled government, part of its efforts to re-establish normality in the city after local fighters it backs ousted the northern-based Shi'ite Houthi militia in July.

The fighters, with military help from Gulf countries who are suspicious of the Houthis' ties to Iran, retook Aden's airport on July 17, a turning point in the civil war after four months of stalemate, and have since pushed further into southern Yemen.

On Monday the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled Aden in March for Riyadh, said groups it supports, backed by Gulf air strikes and arms, had retaken parts of Ibb province and were advancing in Abyan province, near Aden.

The Ishaqs, a prosperous middle class family, left Aden on an Indian navy ship for Djibouti on April 10 after tank shells and mortars started to fall near their home, abandoning some luggage on the quayside as sniper bullets sang overhead.

"Will there be electricity or water? I don't know," said Muheeb Ishaq, 35, sitting next to his sleeping son Mahbub, four, a suitcase and houseplant propped on the plane floor before him, while one-year-old Offa sat fussing on his mother's lap.

The family, including Muheeb's parents, siblings and their families, decided to return home despite such fears because of the hardships they faced as impoverished refugees, first in Djibouti and then in Jordan.

Natives of Aden, and quick to voice their love for the city and pride in the happy, successful lives they had forged there before the war, they said they were determined to rebuild.

Reuters