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A Saudi-led coalition trying to halt the advance of Yemen's Shiite rebels has airdropped weapons to beleaguered fighters in a southern port city, while al-Qaeda militants overran a key military base in eastern Yemen, further expanding their gains in this violence-wracked country.
The developments underscore the magnitude of Yemen's turmoil and the swift unravelling of the country's military and other forces still loyal to embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled Yemen to Saudi Arabia last week.
On one side, there is the ferocious fighting between Shiite rebels known as Houthis and southern militias loyal to Hadi. On the other, Yemen's al-Qaeda branch has been widening its area of influence in the country and gobbling up more territory.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch is named, has benefited from Yemen's political crisis ever since the Houthis first surged from their northern strongholds last year to take over the capital, Sanaa, and much of the north.
The rebels are backed in their push by military and police forces loyal to Hadi's predecessor, ousted autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh.
On Thursday, al-Qaida militants overrun Mukalla, a major port city in southern Yemen and the provincial capital of the country's largest province, Hadramawt, seizing government buildings and freeing inmates from a prison, including a top Saudi-born leader.
The militants consolidated their hold of Mukalla on Friday, capturing its port and a major army base in the city, facing little resistance, said military officials. Soldiers fled the base without a fight as the militants advanced toward the city's airport.
