According to Yemeni sources they slaughtered a number of militiamen loyal to fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi there, it added.

The militants have set up a number of checkpoints across the town, and also taken control of several government buildings there, the report said.

Saudi military aircrafts, meanwhile, carried out aerial strikes against a residential neighborhood in the Sirwah district of Yemen’s central province of Marib, leveling seven buildings to the ground. There were no immediate reports of possible casualties.

On Friday, two children lost their lives and another sustained injuries when artillery rounds fired by Saudi military forces hit a densely-populated area in Yemen’s southern province of Taizz.

Elsewhere, in the Qa’atabah district of the southern province of Dhale, a child was critically wounded after Saudi-backed mercenaries opened fire indiscriminately in an outdoor market.

Meanwhile the resident coordinator of the United Nations (UN) in Yemen slammed the lack of international attention to the nearly year-long conflict in Yemen.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva on Friday, Jamie McGoldrick said that “civilians are the losers” of the war and that the crisis in Yemen is being “overlooked” amid greater attention to the Syria conflict.

Yemen has been under Saudi attacks since last March in a bid to bring Hadi back to power, PRESS TV reports.

The army is a regular target of airstrikes have taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen has taken advantage of the chaos and the breakdown of security to tighten its grip on parts of southeast Yemen.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has also gained ground in and around the main southern city of Aden after the army and their Houthi Ansarallah allies were evicted by a Saudi-led offensive.