Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)Khaled Batarfi grinned broadly as he posed for photos in a presidential residence in southern Yemen.

Photos circulated on social media purported to be of the senior al Qaeda leader, whom Yemeni defense officials said militants had busted out of jail on Thursday.

CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the images.

Sunni Islamist fighters freed Batarfi with some 270 prisoners, when they overran the town of al Mukallah.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/04/middleeast/yemen-saudi-forces-houthis-al-qaeda/index.html

(Reuters) - Tribal forces in Yemen's eastern Hadramawt province have taken over two army bases, a day after soldiers there left their posts, and plan to retake the provincial capital Mukalla from suspected al Qaeda fighters, army sources said on Saturday.

They said a tribal alliance took control of the bases in Shihr and Riyan, which lie on the Arabian Sea coast northeast of Mukalla, after the army withdrew from them on Friday.

It was not immediately clear why troops had abandoned Shihr and Riyan, nor why they pulled out of Mukalla after offering relatively light resistance, but their withdrawal highlighted the further collapse of any central authority in Yemen.

That security vacuum may give Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a powerful regional wing of the global jihadi movement, opportunities to entrench itself further in country's remote eastern reaches.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/04/us-yemen-security-mukalla-idUSKBN0MV08N20150404

(Reuters) - Oman is ready to help the United Nations mediate in Yemen's war, the foreign minister of the neighboring sultanate said on Thursday, but the combatants show no signs they are ready to hold talks on ending the week-old war.

Yusuf bin Alawi said Oman had previously passed messages between Yemen's Houthis and their Saudi foes, but neither had sought out such contact since Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations began air strikes against the Houthis on March 26.

Although Oman could help the United Nations bring the foes to a "roundtable", he said peace efforts should be taken up at the U.N. Security Council, the world's top security body, and hosted somewhere outside the Middle East.

"The U.N. is an organization that has been tasked to maintain peace for all the powers involved, although we will not hesitate to play a role in order to help Yemenis, to help the United Nations, to encourage both parties involved in the crisis to come to a roundtable and discuss their own future," he added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/us-yemen-security-oman-idUSKBN0MT22Q20150402

It's been disheartening to see. But, then, they've been absent for awhile now...so that's not much new.....but, where is Samantha Power and her horror over human rights abuse that she saw in the past...but, can't seem to wrap her head around now?

The Ethiopian embassy in Yemeni capital Sanaa was shelled on Friday, the Foreign Ministry has said.

"We believe it is a collateral damage occurred in the crossfire between the warring factions in the Yemeni capital," said ministry spokesperson Tewolde Mulugeta.

According to the spokesperson, no one was hurt in the attack.

"The embassy continued its normal functioning," Mulugeta said.

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/157347/ethiopian-embassy-in-yemen-shelled

At least 62 children have been killed and 30 injured in the week-old conflict in Yemen, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Tuesday.

Fighting has escalated between Shiite Houthi rebels and Sunnis loyal to ousted president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi since the rebels advanced on his southern stronghold of Aden, forcing him to flee to allied powers in the Arab world, first to Riyadh and then to Egypt for the Arab League Summit in the coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"Children are in desperate need of protection, and all parties to the conflict should do all in their power to keep children safe," UNICEF's representative for Yemen, Julien Harneis, said.

http://www.newsweek.com/62-children-killed-week-long-yemen-conflict-unicef-confirms-318741