Yemen's pro-gov't fighters seize presidential palace from rebels

Fighters loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi recaptured the presidential palace in Yemen's third largest city Taiz on Monday, widening a series of conquests in battles against Shiite Houthi rebels, military sources said.

The fighters, known as popular resistance forces who are backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, retook the presidential palace and its surrounding military protective camp in downtown Taiz early Monday morning, after days of ferocious fighting against the rebels who are backed by militias loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Residents reported heavy clashes in a nearby security camp southwest of the city, which is still under the control of Houthi rebels.

Loyalist forces have retaken several strategic sites in the central city over the past three days, including the intelligence headquarters, the provincial government compound, police stations, Jabal Saber mountaintops overlooking the city, and a citadel used by the rebels to shell their foes for nearly five months, the sources said.

Residents said dozens of rebels and loyalist fighters were killed and injured in the around-the-clock battles.

The rebels were still in control of the city's main entrances, a local airport, Red Sea Mocha port city and three military bases encompassing the strategic city which is seen as the gateway to Sanaa, the capital which was overran by the rebels in September last year.

Taiz, the third largest Yemeni city with a population of nearly three million, is about 256 km south of Sanaa. The five months of escalating violence across Yemen has left over 80 percent of the country's population, or more than 20 million people, in hunger and harsh humanitarian condition.

The advances by forces loyal to the government exiled to the Saudi capital Riyadh have been backed by a Saudi-led coalition's warplanes against rebel positions.

Elsewhere in the oil-rich central province of Marib, overnight battles between pro-government forces, supported by their allied tribesmen, and the Houthi rebels left 37 rebels and six loyalist fighters dead in several frontlines, local official sources told Xinhua.

On Saturday, pro-government forces regained full control over Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa.

Anti-Houthi fighters have made significant progress after retaking Shabwa, the fifth southern province to be retaken by forces loyal to Yemen's exiled President Hadi.

Over three weeks ago, Hadi's forces, backed by elite troops and armored vehicles from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, launched a number of offensives leading to the capture of Aden, Lahj, al-Dhalea and Abyan provinces.

The Arab coalition has been engaged in a war against the Houthis since late March to restore Hadi's legitimacy. The exiled government announced on July 17 that Saudi-backed fighters have taken full control of the southern port city of Aden after nearly five months of battles with Shiite Houthi rebels.

Hadi was ousted by the Shiite Houthi group who has controlled the capital Sanaa since last September. He fled to Aden in late February after weeks of house arrest, and has been taking refuge with his cabinet in the Saudi capital Riyadh since March 26. Endit