CAIRO -- Saudi Arabia said Saturday that its navy had evacuated 86 Arab and Western diplomats from the port city of Aden in southern Yemen, as a Saudi-led coalition conducted a third day of airstrikes against the rebel Houthi movement.
Separately, Saudi Arabia confirmed that a U.S. helicopter had rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from an F-15 fighter over waters south of Yemen. The official Saudi Press Agency said the pilots had ejected because of a "technical fault" and were "in good health."
The evacuation of the diplomats from Aden reflected the spreading chaos in Yemen as the Houthi-allied forces continued to advance, even under the pressure of the Saudi bombing. The breakdown of order has potentially grave consequences for the United States because Yemen had been a central theater of the war with al-Qaida, but the factional fighting has now forced the United States to withdraw its forces as well.
Al-Ekhbariya TV announced on its news ticker that the diplomats had been safely transported to the Saudi city of Jeddah, the Reuters news agency reported.
Aden is Yemen's second-largest city and had been the provisional headquarters of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Saudi-backed Yemeni leader, since the Houthi forces overran the capital, Sanaa, in January. Hadi fled last month to Aden to make a last stand among his supporters in the south, but he, too, has now left Yemen, attending a meeting of Arab leaders Saturday in Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt.
The Houthi movement, based in northwestern Yemen, follows a form of Shiite Islam and has received financial support from Iran, the region's Shiite power and the chief rival to Saudi Arabia. The Houthi surge has alarmed the Saudis about the possibility of an Iranian-backed group digging in on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.
The Houthis also have struck an alliance with Yemen's former strongman, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who retained significant support among the Yemeni military and security forces even after he was forced from power in 2012.
In a 10-minute address broadcast on Yemeni television Saturday, Saleh said he was pleading for a truce, urging negotiations but standing by demands for the ouster of his Saudi-backed successor.
Saleh promised that neither he nor anyone in his family would run for president. His supporters have been actively campaigning for his eldest son, Ahmed, the former commander of the Republican Guard.
"I appeal to you and your conscience to protect your children and women in Yemen against these barbaric and unjustified strikes," he said, apparently addressing both Yemenis and the Arab leaders lined up behind the Saudi Arabian campaign against him.
For the first time in the two-day operation, Saudi officials sketched out the scope of their military operation, indicating they might not try to completely defeat the Houthi rebels but instead would seek to safeguard enough territory for Hadi to return from exile.
"I want to confirm that the operation itself has as its main objective to protect the government in Aden," Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, a Saudi military spokesman, said at a news conference Saturday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, according to the Reuters news agency.
Asseri said several groups of Houthis were moving toward the Saudi border, but that the coalition would never allow them to cross.
Anis Mansour, editor-in-chief of Aden's Huna Aden newspaper, said the rebels seized a government compound Friday in Dar Saad, about 5 miles from the center of Aden. They also took control of the city's airport, he said. Rebels and pro-government forces have battled over the airport for days.
Commercial flights to Yemen have been cut off, and the Saudi-led coalition has blockaded the ports.
The United States is providing intelligence and logistical support for the Saudi-led campaign, including conducting surveillance flights and providing refueling tankers, The Associated Press reported Saturday. State Department officials had said previously that the U.S. military also was helping the Saudis with targeting information.
Defense Department officials said the helicopter that rescued the two Saudi pilots had flown from a base in Djibouti, a small African nation that lies across a narrow strait from Yemen, the AP reported. A destroyer, the Sterett, and an amphibious transport dock, the New York, also were involved, the report said.
Yemeni military officials said an explosion rocked the Jabal al-Hadid military camp in Aden that houses a weapons depot and had been taken by forces loyal to Saleh, killing and wounding several people. Security officials said nine people were killed in the strike, while 150 were injured.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement Saturday that the Saudi-led air campaign had killed at least 11 and possibly as many as 34 civilians in Sanaa in the first two days of strikes. The group said the 11 confirmed civilian deaths included two children.
Amnesty International reported that at least 14 civilian homes in a predominantly Houthi neighborhood of Sanaa had been destroyed.
Other strikes have hit the northern city of Saada, a center of the Houthi movement. The coalition's forces also struck the northern city of Hudaydah and the southern city of Taiz, all places where the Houthis have made recent gains.
Blame put on Iran
Meanwhile, Yemen's president Saturday called Shiite rebels who forced him to flee the country "puppets of Iran," directly blaming the Islamic Republic for the chaos there and demanding airstrikes against rebel positions continue until the rebels surrender.
Egypt's president supported the creation of a regional Arab military force, and a Persian Gulf diplomat warned that Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen could go on for months.
The comments by Arab leaders came at a summit largely focusing on the chaos caused by the advance of the rebels.
Leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait blamed the Persian Gulf country for meddling in the affairs of Arab nations, with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi saying, without mentioning Iran by name, that it was "spreading its ailment in the body."
"This [Arab] nation, in its darkest hour, had never faced a challenge to its existence and a threat to its identity like the one it's facing now," el-Sissi said. "This threatens our national security and [we] cannot ignore its consequences for the Arab identity."
Hadi directly challenged Iran in his remarks and called for his supporters to rise up in peaceful protest against the Houthis.
"I say to the puppets of Iran, its toys and those who support it, you have destroyed Yemen with your political adolescence and by manufacturing domestic and regional crises," Hadi said.
Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement, though the Islamic Republic has provided humanitarian and other aid.
Meanwhile, a news report on the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah television station referred to Hadi as a "puppet" of Saudi Arabia.
Ali al-Emad, a senior official of the Houthi movement's political arm, Ansar Allah, said Saudi Arabia was taking charge of the Yemen issue.
"We knew from day one that we are facing regimes that are allies, agents or toys of foreign powers," he said.
Hadi also said airstrikes against the Houthis must not stop before the rebels surrender and return weapons looted from army depots across much of the country. Saudi Arabia's monarch, King Salman, earlier pledged that the military campaign in Yemen would not stop until security and stability are restored.
Hadi later left the summit with the Saudi king for Riyadh, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
At the summit, el-Sissi also endorsed a resolution adopted by Arab foreign ministers Thursday for the creation of an Arab military force. He also described the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen as "inevitable."
A Persian Gulf diplomatic official, meanwhile, said the airstrikes campaign was planned to last for one month, but that coalition nations were prepared for the probability of going on for up to six months. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to brief journalists.
Iran and its allies have condemned the Saudi airstrikes. On Friday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Saudi foreign policy was inadequate, saying Iranian influence has grown in the region because "you are lazy, losers and you don't take responsibility."
He also dismissed as "lies" that Iran is seeking dominance of Yemen through the Houthi rebels.
Already, some backers of Iran have begun to step away from supporting it over Yemen. On Saturday, the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, issued a statement offering support for Hadi.
Information for this article was contributed by David D. Kirkpatrick and Saeed Al-Batati of The New York Times; by Hamza Hendawi, Ahmed al-Haj, Aya Batrawy, Fares Akram, Sarah El Deeb and Brian Rohan of The Associated Press; by Donna Abu-Nasr, Mohammed Hatem, Deema Almashabi, Ahmed Feteha, Salma El Wardany and Riad Hamade of Bloomberg News; and by Ali al-Mujahed and Hugh Naylor of The Washington Post.
A Section on 03/29/2015