TAIZZ, Yemen
The Saudi-led warplanes struck the presidential palace and other Houthi-held sites in central Yemen's Taizz city on Friday as Houthi militants continue to fight forces loyal to embattled President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi for control of the city.
Coalition planes struck a facility inside Taizz's presidential palace complex which had been seized by the Houthis as well as another Houthi-held site in central Taizz.
Since the early hours of Friday, Houthi militants and pro-Hadi forces have been engaged in violent clashes in western Taizz, where intermittent explosion sounds could be heard from the confrontations' direction.
Eyewitnesses have told The Anadolu Agency that Houthis fired mortar shells on neighborhoods in parts of western Taizz where pro-Hadi vigilantes are concentrated.
Houthi members, however, could not be immediately reached for comment on the clashes.
On March 21, Houthis entered Taizz –which lies close to the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait without violent resistance from pro-Hadi vigilantes.
Since then, the Shiite militant group has been staging advances on the key southern city of Aden from Taizz.
Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September, when the Houthi group overran capital Sanaa, from which they have since sought to extend their influence to other parts of the fractious country.
Last month, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have launched a military campaign against the Houthis across Yemen.
Riyadh says the anti-Houthi campaign comes in response to Hadi's appeals for military intervention against Houthis.
The Houthis, for their part, denounce the offensive as an unwarranted "Saudi-American onslaught" on Yemen.
Some Gulf States accuse Shiite Iran of supporting Yemen's Houthi insurgency.
