A Saudi soldier takes his position at Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen.

The United States has stepped up weapons deliveries in support of a Saudi-led coalition resisting the advance of Houthi rebels in Yemen, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.

“Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force,” Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

“In support of that effort we have expedited weapons deliveries,” he said after talks with Saudi officials.

“We’ve increased our intelligence sharing, and we’ve established a joint coordination planning cell in the Saudi operations center.”

Last month, Saudi Arabia launched “Operation Decisive Storm” against the Houthi coup in Yemen and in support of legitimate President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi.

Yemen’s Houthis have joined forces with militias of the deposed Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh in an aggressive bid for power in the crisis-wrecked country. In September 2014, the militias took over the capital Sanaa and eventually forced President Hadi to escape house arrest and flee to the city of Aden.

[wpResize]

Related articles across the web

• Yemen foreign minister: Former President Saleh main problem, not Houthis
• Analysis: How Yemen's ex-dictator is tearing his country apart
• Deadly blasts target Yemen's Shiite rebels
• Forces loyal to Yemen's ex-president hit by strikes aimed at Houthi militia
• Riyadh enters the fray
• The UN Panel Of Experts Report on Yemen
• Houthis seize an airbase in Yemen's Lahij
• Yemen: The Russian angle and the Arab mentality factor
• Planes of Saudi-led alliance hit Yemen capital, Houthi heartland
• Houthis accuse Yemen's president of arming Al-Qaeda - January 19, 2015