Sanaa: Riyadh on Sunday demanded Tehran stop backing Shiite rebels in Yemen but insisted it is "not at war with Iran", as a Saudi-led warplanes launched fresh strikes on rebel forces.


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In the third week of the air strikes mounted by Saudi Arabia and its allies, the International Organization for Migration said it flew a first plane-load of 143 foreigners out of Yemen.


At a gathering in Doha, Qatar, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed for the resumption of Yemeni peace talks and for "a cessation of military moves as soon as possible".


French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius voiced political support for Saudi Arabia`s operation, saying in Riyadh that his country "has expressed its readiness to find a solution" for Yemen.


Saudi Arabia heads a coalition of nine Arab countries which since March 26 has carried out air strikes against the Huthi Shiite rebels who overran the capital Sanaa in September.


Riyadh feared the rebels would take over the entire country and move it into the orbit of Shiite Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia`s regional rival.


At a news conference alongside Fabius, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called on Tehran not to "assist the criminal activities" of the Huthis "against the legitimate order of Yemen and (to) stop the delivery of weapons and aid" to the rebels.


But he insisted that "we are not at war with Iran," which denies arming the rebels and whose supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described the coalition`s involvement as "criminal".


The rebels under coalition fire include forces who have remained loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh after he was forced from power in 2012 following a year of nationwide protests against his three-decade rule.


The rebels have been locked in deadly battles against forces loyal to fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.


Since the air campaign began, fighting has flared in 15 of Yemen`s 22 provinces. The coalition said Saturday it had conducted 1,200 strikes since March 26 and neutralised the air and missile capabilities of the anti-government forces in the air war which is accompanied by a naval blockade.


The campaign was launched as the rebels closed in on Hadi`s refuge in Aden, but the president escaped to Saudi Arabia when fighting encroached on the city.


Air strikes on Sunday targeted a presidential palace in Aden, killing six Huthis.


Raids were also conducted around Sanaa, and Huthi gatherings were targeted in both the central province of Ibb and farther east in Marib.


The Huthis have won support from renegade soldiers loyal to ex-president Saleh, but on Sunday soldiers from two brigades in Marib joined the ranks of the pro-Hadi fighters, a tribal chief said.


In Shabwa, tribesmen seized the base of a rebel brigade and seized the arms there, before clashing with other renegade troops and forcing them to surrender their arms.


At least 27 people were killed in an air strike and fighting across Yemen overnight, medical and security sources said.Al-Qaeda militants have taken advantage of the security vacuum to seize control of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province in the southeast.


An alleged US drone late Saturday hit an Al-Qaeda vehicle in Mukalla, killing six suspected jihadists, a government official said.


US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged last week that Al-Qaeda was making gains and the fighting in Yemen was complicating American counter-terrorism efforts but vowed they would go on regardless.


Humanitarian agencies have managed to deliver more aid. On Saturday, a Red Cross plane landed in Sanaa with more than 35 tonnes of medical aid and equipment.


It followed two flights on Friday organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, each carrying 16 tonnes of medicine and equipment in the first aid deliveries since the air war began.


A Russian naval vessel evacuated 308 people of various nationalities from Aden, said an official in Moscow.


The UN refugee agency said at least 900 people had arrived in the Horn of Africa from the conflict-riven country in the past 10 days, most of them Somalis, but also Yemenis.