Houthi rebels seize Yemen presidential palace

Yemeni security officials say Shiite rebels and their allies have captured the presidential palace in Aden following heavy clashes in the commercial center of this southern coastal city.

Aden’s Maasheeq palace is a cluster of colonial-era villas perched atop a rocky hill that juts into the Arabian Sea. The palace was President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s last seat of power before he fled to Saudi Arabia last month amid the Houthi advance.

At least 44 people are killed in fighting between rebels and supporters of the Yemeni President in Aden, medics and a military official says.

Eighteen civilians and six members of a local militia resisting the rebels’ advance were killed in the fighting, a medic says. A military official says 20 Houthi Shiite rebels also died in the clashes.

—AP, AFP