27 dead as Yemen army closes in on Taez palace

Aden: Yemeni government forces fought Saturday to capture a rebel-held presidential palace in the southwestern province of Taez after clashes that killed 27 people, medics and military sources said.

Most of Taez province is controlled by Shiite Huthi rebels, who are battling forces allied with UN-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi holed up in the provincial capital of the same name.

Medics at the rebel-controlled Thamar Government Hospital in Taez, Yemen`s third city, said 19 Huthis had been killed in clashes over the past 24 hours.

Military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported eight soldiers dead during the same period as the army closed in on the presidential palace.

The palace is under the control of the Iran-backed Huthis who are allied with former soldiers loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A Saudi-led coalition has fought in Yemen for the past two years on the side of Hadi`s government.

A statement on Saudi Arabia`s official SPA news agency on Saturday said pro-government Yemeni forces had captured the palace in Taez.

But military sources on the ground denied this, telling AFP that while government forces were closing in on the palace, they had not yet seized it.

Yemen`s conflict has killed more than 8,000 people and wounded tens of thousands, according to the UN`s World Health Organization.

More than 500 people have died of cholera and another 55,200 left ill in recent weeks in the second outbreak of the deadly infection in less than a year in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world.

The UN has warned that 17 million people, or two-thirds of the population, face a serious threat of famine this year.