Yemeni, UAE troops enter Qaeda-held city: residents

People inspect damage at a site hit by Saudi-led air strikes in the al Qaeda-held port of Mukalla city in southern Yemen

Yemeni and Emirati troops advanced into the southern port city of Mukalla on Sunday, officials and residents said, entering a stronghold of al Qaeda's Yemeni wing for the first time in over a year of war.

Fighter jets from the mostly Gulf Arab alliance pounded the city on Sunday and killed 30 militants, residents said, as the military coalition ramped up an offensive to wrest swathes of southern Yemen from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).