ADEN/RIYADH: Rebel forces on Thursday seized Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's palace in his former refuge of Aden, a senior security official told AFP.

“Dozens of Houthi militia and their allies arrived in armoured troop carriers and entered Al-Maashiq presidential palace,” said the official, who witnessed their advance into the complex.

Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia last week as the rebels bore down on Aden.

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Unidentified troops landed in Aden after Houthis seized the center of the city. Dozens of unidentified troops landed by sea in Aden in an apparent last-ditch effort by a Saudi-led coalition to shore up a foothold in the Yemeni port city after Houthi rebels seized control of its center today.

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The soldiers arrived in a single vessel a few hours after the Houthis and their supporters swept into the heart of Aden despite an eight-day air campaign led by Riyadh to stem their advances.

A Saudi Arabian border guard was killed, and 10 others wounded, when their observation post came under fire from a mountainous area in Yemen, the interior ministry said on Thursday in comments carried by Saudi news agency SPA.

Corporal Salman Ali Yahya al-Maliki, who was killed in the border province of Asir, is the first known Saudi fatality in the week-old military campaign the country has led against Houthi fighters in Yemen.