SANAA — Al-Qaida insurgents advanced into a major city in southeastern Yemen Friday as a Saudi-led coalition airdropped arms to fighters battling Houthi rebels in the southern city of Aden.
Al-Qaida operatives overran a local army headquarters in Mukalla and seized a large cache of hardware, a day after the militants freed hundreds of inmates from the city’s prison, a security official said.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the extremists killed an unspecified number of soldiers during the battle for the outpost.
“The soldiers resisted the al-Qaida elements as much as they could, but they could not stop them from controlling the command headquarters,” the official said.
The jihadists on Thursday unleashed simultaneous attacks on state institutions in Mukalla, Yemen’s third-largest city, and have since seized most of it.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, is one of the terrorist network’s most active branches.
Yemen has in recent months descended into chaos amid a power struggle between the Houthis and internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Sunni Saudi Arabia and eight fellow Arab countries are engaged in an air campaign targeting the Shiite Houthis, widely understood to be backed by Shiite Iran.
The Saudis have vowed to continue the bombing until Hadi, a Sunni, is reinstated, raising the prospect for a wider conflict with Iran.
Saudi planes on Friday dropped weapons in Aden to local allies fighting the Houthis, who are seeking to capture the coastal city.
The aircraft carried out a “successful operation” to supply pro-Saudi fighters with weapons and sophisticated communications devices in several areas of the city, the Yemeni news site Aden al-Ghad reported.
The site posted images showing people lifting boxes of what was said to be weapons into a truck.
Saudi-owned broadcaster Al-Arabia confirmed the airdrop, saying it was aimed at supporting “resistance” fighters there.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Sallam claimed that the rebels still control the presidential palace and airport in Aden despite the coalition airstrikes. His claims could not be independently verified.
The Houthis, who already control the capital, Sanaa, have intensified their attacks as they move to seize Aden, Hadi’s stronghold.
Should it fall to the Shiite rebels, it would deal a major blow to the Saudi-led alliance.
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