President Hadi flees Yemen as Houthis push on: reports

Yemen's embattled president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, fled Yemen as Houthi rebels advanced on the port city of Aden, Yemen official told Middle East Eye.

The official did not say where Hadi had fled to.

Earlier on Wednesday the Houthis captured a key airbase near Hadi's southern refuge just days after US military personnel were evacuated, an army official said.

"The Houthis (Shiite militia) took control of Al-Anad," an official told Middle East Eye, referring to the base 60km north of Aden used by US military to train troops and launch attacks against al-Qaeda.

The Houthis also captured the city of Al-Hawtah, the provincial capital of Yemen's southern state of Lahij, arresting Yemen's defence minister, Mahmoud al-Subaihi, a key ally of Hadi who had rallying popular committees to fight the Houthi incursion.

The Houthis are now within striking distance of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeab straight, a vital corridor through which much of the world’s maritime trade passes.

Intervention looming?

Hadi asked the UN Security Council on Tuesday to intervene militarily against the Houthis telling the UN to "shoulder its responsiblities and stop Yemen from sliding into more choas and destruction."

Saudi Arabia is moving heavy military equipment including artillery to areas near its border with Yemen, U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday, raising the risk that the Middle East’s top oil power will be drawn into the worsening Yemeni conflict.

The slide toward war in Yemen has made the country a crucial front in Saudi Arabia's region-wide rivalry with Iran, which Riyadh accuses of sowing sectarian strife through its support for the Houthis.

But Yemen officials told MEE that Saudi intervention was unlikely. "It's too late," an official said by phone from Sanaa. "They will not back a president who does not have any popular support."