Dubai: Al Qaida militants in Yemen on Thursday seized control of an airport in the southeastern provincial capital of Mukalla, an airport official said.

“The military unit in charge of security at the facility withdrew without resisting” Al Qaida fighters, the official said.

Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the network’s powerful Yemeni branch, took advantage of the country’s growing chaos earlier this month to seize control of Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province.

Officials said Al Qaida fighters clashed with members of the infantry brigade in charge of protecting the Riyan airport in Mukalla.

Nasser Baqazouz, an activist in the city, said the troops guarding the airport put up little resistance.

In the southern city of Al Shihr, Yemeni tribal forces on Thursday took control of a major oil terminal in the country’s southeast after soldiers protecting the site withdrew, a military source said.

The terminal, in the city of Al Shihr in Hadramawt province, “fell under the complete control of tribal fighters after the military unit guarding it withdrew in the afternoon without resistance,” the source said.

And in Riyadh, Yemen’s newly appointed Vice President Khaled Bahah appealed on Thursday for renegade army units to drop their support for Al Houthi rebels fighting his exiled government.

In his first press conference, Bahah said Yemen’s political parties, and decades of tribal and personal loyalties at the expense of the nation, are responsible for the country’s turmoil.

He also steered away from blaming Iran, accused of supporting the rebels, but said the nation should make a “positive contribution”.

“I call on all troops and security forces personnel to accept the command of the legitimate government and protect the country,” he told reporters in Riyadh, where he and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled the Al Houthis’ advance.

Troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have allied with the Al Houthi rebels fighting pro-Hadi forces.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia began an air war on March 26 against the Iran-backed rebels who are in control of the Yemeni capital and locked in battle with pro-Hadi forces in the main southern city of Aden.

The coalition has not ruled out sending ground troops but Bahah said he would prefer that didn’t happen.

“We are still hoping that there is no ground campaign” to avoid a higher casualty toll, he said, adding the “Yemenis themselves” should be able to handle ground combat in conjunction with coalition air strikes.

The World Health Organization says at least 736 people died in the conflict up to April 12.

Bahah, who also serves as prime minister, appealed for emergency aid to avoid “catastrophe” in the face of food, medicine, electricity and other shortages.

Wearing a dark suit, the moustachioed Bahah addressed reporters in front of a map of Yemen and the country’s flag in a room protected by rifle-toting Saudi soldiers at a luxury hotel.

Bahah said his country has suffered six decades of divisions based on loyalties to tribes and individuals.

“We are paying the price of this kind of loyalty,” he said, calling on Yemenis, especially the military, to put their country first.

Iran has been widely accused of supporting the Al Houthis but Bahah said, “we blame ourselves first,” and the political parties of Yemen are among those responsible.

The poverty which ravages Yemen is another factor behind the violence, he said.

Bahah said the restoration of the vice presidency aims to “improve the efficiency, the capacity, of the presidency. President Hadi passed through a very difficult time”.

- with inputs from Reuters and AFP