Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV claimed the Houthis, who control Sanaa, have put their forces in the city on alert.
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Pro-Houthi media said the air campaign continued unabated on Wednesday, killing 13 people in bombings throughout the country.
The Shi’ite Houthis, who had been in control of the airport, insisted they withdrew from the city after “cleansing” it of al-Qaeda forces. But the United Nations Secretary General’s office said beforehand that President Hadi had “communicated his acceptance of the pause to the coalition to ensure their support”.
It was the defection of the 39th Armoured Brigade on March 25 that had enabled the rebels to take the airport. They and their allies have since seized the presidential palace as well as Aden’s main commercial airport.
Military sources in Aden have said that pro-Hadi fighters were now being backed up with ground support from Yemeni forces recently trained in Saudi Arabia, AFP reported.
Fighting in the port city escalated as United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon expressed disappointment that a UN-declared ceasefire failed to take hold over the weekend.
Retaking the airport of Aden is the first significant achievement for pro-Hadi fighters since the embattled president fled.
“Our security and armed forces maintain their right to fight and hunt down al Qaeda and Islamic State elements as part of our just defence of our people“, Colonel Sharaf Luqman, spokesperson for the Houthi-allied army, said in a statement on Saturday.
Air strikes hit the Shiite Huthi stronghold of Saada in Yemen’s north, as well as other rebel positions south of the capital Sanaa and in the southern province of Lahj, residents said.
The popular resistance fighters captured the airport after days of violent clashes with Iran-backed Houthis and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemen’s exiled government had wanted the rebels to withdraw from the cities and towns they had overrun since September as a precondition to a truce, but it came under pressure to agree to a halt in violence immediately.
Dujarric said Cheikh Ahmed had engaged in “very intense discussions with all parties”, including telephone calls with Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister and Foreign Minister.
Aden serves as the primary sea port of Yemen.
The latest numbers bring the total killed in Yemen since March 26 to 1,670, while 3,829 civilians have been injured, Colville said.
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Import restrictions amid fighting in Yemen and the conflict itself have produced a serious lack of fuel that has had already begun to have a worrying impact on food distribution, water access, and health services for the more than three quarters of the population in Yemen in need of aid, the organization said.
