Media caption Yemen airport ‘recaptured from rebels’

In recent days, the pro-government forces were provided with heavy weapons by the Saudi-led coalition that have enabled them to make progress against the Houthis, they added.

“This could be the first step to a beachhead”, he said.

In retreat, the Houthi rebels launched Katyusha rockets that killed at least 12 civilians and wounded 105 others, Aden health department head Al-Khader Laswar told AFP.

Yemeni government spokesman Rajeh Badi was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying: “Aden International Airport and Khormaksar have been cleared of Houthi and Saleh elements, by armed forces backing Yemen’s legitimacy and the popular resistance forces, in coordination with and with direct support by the coalition”.

A witness saw about 40 dun-coloured armoured vehicles, which the fighters said were provided and shipped behind their lines by the UAE and were vital for their battle to win back control of the airport.

Pro-government militiamen have made further advances against Houthi rebels in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.

Soldiers of the 39th Armored Brigade had captured Aden’s airport on March 25 after switching allegiance to the Houthi rebels.

The Aden campaign, dubbed “Operation Golden Arrow”, is being supervised by President Hadi from Riyadh, a resistance source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Much of Aden has been reduced to rubble by four months of ferocious fighting.

On Wednesday mid-day these were held in overweight disagreements by having militiamen working to grasp a location known as Crater, residents said, applying notable sniper hearth from volcanic crags which actually look over a beach cities.

Aden, the capital of the former Marxist republic of South Yemen, has been devastated by the fighting, which broke out in March as the Houthis advanced on the city.

The offensive in Aden comes after the collapse of a ceasefire that was supposed to have taken effect before midnight on Friday to allow for aid deliveries.

United States President Barack Obama and King Salman on Tuesday discussed the “urgent” need to end fighting in Yemen, hours after Saudi-backed loyalists retook control of Aden airport.

As millions face “terrifying” violence, extreme hunger and little medical aid in Yemen, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator today expressed deep concern over the “catastrophic” situation, and renewed his appeal for an “immediate and unconditional humanitarian pause”.

More than 3,000 people have been killed and more than one million displaced since the conflict broke out. Water pumps will fail to work without fuel, leaving 80 percent of Yemen’s population of 20 million without a source for clean water, the agency said.