(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Saudi-led air raids drove Yemeni rebels from the presidential palace in the main southern city of Aden yesterday as the UN reported more than 500 dead in two weeks of fighting.
Yemen has sunk further into chaos since the Saudi-led coalition launched Operation Decisive Storm on March 26 to halt the rebel advance.
A day after Al Qaeda militants stormed a jail and freed 300 inmates, residents said the Sunni extremists had overrun large parts of Mukalla, capital of the southeastern province of Hadramawt.
UN aid chief Valerie Amos said 519 people had been killed and nearly 1,700 injured in two weeks of fighting.
The rebel forces had captured the palace on Thursday, the last bastion of supporters of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi who has fled to Saudi Arabia.
But after a night of intense bombardment by the coalition, "the Houthi militia and their allies withdrew from Al Maashiq Palace before dawn," said an official. They retreated to the nearby central district of Khor Maksar, where 12 of them were killed in an overnight attack by pro-Hadi militiamen.
Al Qaeda militants flying the black banner of the extremist network were seen patrolling and setting up roadblocks in central and western areas of Mukalla.
As part of its logistical support for the campaign, the US will provide aerial refuelling, an official said. It is also delivering intelligence from surveillance satellites and aircraft to help the Saudis monitor their border and track the location of Houthis as they push south - to avoid causing civilian casualties, the official said.
Fresh clashes erupted near the palace and the city's international airport, which was bombarded during the night by coalition warships. A plane parked at the airport was destroyed.
"Fighters of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) control districts in Mukalla but not the whole city," a local official said. Key facilities in the east of the city, including the airport and the port, "are under the control of government forces".
Al Qaeda gunmen also attacked the local administration complex, a branch of the central bank and the police headquarters. They "took the headquarters of the 2nd Military Region in the afternoon without resistance", the official said.
Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition dropped arms supplies by parachute to fighters defending central Aden from the Houthis, local fighters said.
Meanwhile, two more Saudi soldiers were killed on the border with Yemen, the interior ministry said.
On Thursday, a soldier was shot from across the border in the same area.
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