Aden---A Saudi-led coalition pounded rebels in southern Yemen Saturday and dropped more arms to loyalist fighters as the UN Security Council was to discuss calls for "humanitarian pauses" in the air war.
Yemen's main southern city, a last foothold of supporters of absent President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, has been shaken by more than a week of fierce clashes between Shiite rebels and loyalist militia.
Coalition warplanes and ships bombarded Shiite Huthi rebel positions in Aden on the 10th night of Operation Decisive Storm.
A military source said at least 13 rebel fighters were killed.
For a second night, the coalition airdropped weapons and ammunition to supporters of Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia late last month as the Iran-backed Huthis approached his refuge.
Pro-Hadi fighters were seen unpacking rifles from wooden crates dropped by parachute.
"We thank the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and all the Gulf countries, as well as our brothers in Arab countries, for dropping supplies," said Ahmad Qassem al-Shaawi, a local militia chief.
"God willing, we will be victorious and bravely carry on fighting as heroes, and fight off any attack."
Aided by the strikes and arms drops, the pro-Hadi fighters have managed to drive the rebels back from some parts of central Aden including Hadi's palace.
At least 185 dead and 1,282 wounded from the clashes have been counted in hospitals in Aden since March 26, the city's health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar said.
Three-quarters were civilians, he added.
The toll does not include casualties among the Huthi Shiite rebels and their allies, who do not take their casualties to public hospitals, or victims of air raids, he said.
The coalition says it has no plans for now to deploy ground forces in Yemen.
However, the kingdom's army and naval special forces have carried out specific operations, a Saudi adviser said, without revealing if they had actually set foot on the ground.
Army Special Forces supplied weapons and communications equipment to pro-Hadi fighters in Aden, the adviser told AFP.
He said Special Forces were also involved in operations against Huthi units on Myun Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, through which much of the world's maritime trade passes.
AFP
