18 Dead As Rebels Clash With Pro-Government Forces Near Yemen's Aden

At least 18 people were killed on Thursday as supporters of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi clashed with Shiite rebels advancing on Aden, where the internationally backed leader has sought refuge, a local official said.

The clashes erupted in Huta, capital of the southern Lahj province, when the pro-Hadi "popular committees" were resisting the rebel advance, the official said.

The rebels, who reached Huta's northern entrance on Wednesday, pressed on towards the city centre where they clashed with the popular committees, the source added.

They traded gunfire near the local administration headquarters and a police complex, security officials told AFP, adding that 13 Huthis and five pro-Hadi fighters were killed.

In Aden itself, pro-rebel fighters clashed with armed groups, military and security officials said, without being able to immediately identify the groups.

"Eight people were killed and 33 were injured in the clashes," a medic said.

Military officials told AFP the fighting broke out after troops deserted several camps in Aden, leaving behind stocks of weapons, including tanks.

"Residents began looting the arms depots and we are concerned they could have seized heavy weapons," one official said.

The violence in southern Yemen comes as Saudi warplanes bombed Huthi rebels in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday night, launching an Arab military intervention in support of its embattled president.

The rebels and their allies have been closing in on Aden where Hadi has been holed up since fleeing rebel-controlled Sanaa last month.

Their advance raised Saudi fears that the Shiite minority rebels would seize control of the whole of its Sunni-majority neighbour and take Yemen into the orbit of Shiite Iran.