Sanaa (AFP) - Shiite rebels fleeing Tuesday as pro-government forces captured a jail from them threw open the doors and let out some 1,200 prisoners including convicted murderers, a loyalist source said.

The prisoners were being held in a prison outside Taez in southwestern Yemen, when it was overrun by fighters of the pro-government's Popular Resistance Committees.

Another loyalist source said their forces were trying to round up the escaped prisoners.

The rebels, known as Huthis, have seized large chunks of the country's territory since they rose up against the government last summer, supported by forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

They and the loyalists have been fighting for months to control Taez, Yemen's third-largest city.