Shiite rebels today seized a city in central Yemen seen as a strategic link to the south, security and tribal source said, further expanding the territory under their control.
And nine people were killed when a bomb exploded near a rebel office in the capital, overrun by the insurgents last month, police said.
Yemen has fallen deeper into turmoil since an uprising ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012 after a year of unrest, with rivals, including the Huthi rebels and Al-Qaeda, battling each other.
The Huthis captured Radmah -- on a road linking Sanaa with the main southern city Aden -- after 24 hours of fighting against local tribesmen, a security official told AFP.
Radmah is in Ibb province, where the rebels have been locked this month in battles with mostly-Sunni tribesmen.
After easily overrunning the capital in September, the Huthis moved on to the Red Sea port city of Hudeida as well as Shiite-populated Dhamar and entered Ibb, the provincial capital.
The rebels, from the mountainous north, are seeking greater political clout in impoverished Yemen, which is located next to oil kingpin Saudi Arabia and key shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden.
Yemen is a key US ally that has allowed Washington to conduct drone strikes against Al-Qaeda on its territory, and the fighting has raised fears of it collapsing into a failed state.
