Yemeni rebels take control of southern city

SANAA — Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies took control of a strategic city in the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa Saturday, security officials and witnesses said, as Saudi-led coalition warplanes continue air strikes across the country in an effort to push back the rebels' advance.

Security officials said the city of Saeed fell into the hands of the Houthis after some local tribal sheikhs and military leaders accepted money and weapons to facilitate their entry into the area. They say dozens of fighters were killed in the two-day long battle, along with six civilians.

The city of Saeed lies along key strategic routes to the eastern Yemeni province of Hadramawt and to the port city of Balhaf, home to a major liquefied natural gas terminal.

A Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the Houthis since March 26. Saudi Arabia and the West accuse Iran of supporting the Houthis militarily, something Tehran and the rebels both deny. Meanwhile, the ongoing fighting on the ground in Yemen pits the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh against supporters of embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Yemeni security and medical officials said at least eight civilians were killed Saturday as a result of violent clashes in Aden, Taiz and Marib.

In Marib, the centre of much of Yemen's oil industry, the spokesman for the area's tribes, Saleh Al Anjaf, said tribal fighters were able to drive back the Houthis and their allies from positions east of Marib city. They were supported by coalition planes, he said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.

Meanwhile, United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed held consultations with Yemeni political groups in the capital, Sanaa, after peace talks were indefinitely postponed earlier this week.

International aid groups say Yemen's conflict has killed up to 2,000 people and wounded 8,000, while recent UN estimates have said that at least 1,037 civilians, including 130 women and 234 children, have been killed in the fighting.