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Sources in Yemen’s government confirmed the move, though there has been no official announcement, and Yemen’s exiled information minister said on Tuesday that commercial flights would be diverted from the capital to the southern port of Aden.

The seizure of Al Anad military base, once the hub of a U.S. drone war against Al Qaeda’s potent Yemen branch, would mark a significant gain for the Saudi Arabian-backed troops fighting to reclaim large tracts of territory from Shiite Muslim rebels known as Houthis.

Despite losing Aden, the rebels still control large swathes of Yemen, including Sanaa which they overran last September.

Fighters loyal to Yemen’s deposed president seized about 10 southern villages from Houthi forces on Tuesday, maintaining momentum in their offensive a day after capturing the country’s biggest air base, residents and loyalist sources said.

Asseri, whose side has been conducting air raids on Houthis since March 26, said the first task was to secure Aden so the government could operate from there for the moment. The coalition also struck upper of the port-city of Aden.

However, ground fighting broke out nearly immediately in the restive city of Taiz following random shelling by Shiite Houthi rebels in three neighborhoods, they said.

Human Rights Watch condemned as an “apparent war crime” on Tuesday a Saudi-led air raid in Yemen last week that it said killed at least 65 civilians in residential compounds.

“It just shows what is the trend now of the air strikes from the coalition”, said Hassan Boucenine of the Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders.

Aden was recently liberated from Houthi control by the Popular Resistance and last week members of Yemen’s government-in-exile began returning to the city in order to set up a rival power base to the Houthis’ in the capital Sana’a, which the group has controlled...

While repair work was going to be carried out to fix damage done to the airport during fighting in the past few months, the airport’s staff was expected preparing to receive daily aid-carrying aircraft starting soon, he explained.

Yemen’s “popular resistance” forces, which support president-in-exile Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, said late Sunday that 47 civilians had been killed – and more than 140 injured – when the Shia Houthi militia shelled parts of the southern Aden province.

The coalition said it has not received a formal request from Hadi’s government to observe a truce, while the rebels said before the ceasefire went into effect they had little hope it would succeed.

Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV claimed the Houthis, who control Sanaa, have put their forces in the city on alert.

The developments mark the biggest military setback in over three months of fighting in the south for the Houthis, who control the capital Sana’a and much of northern Yemen.

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.