Yemen battle for Aden 'leaves 185 dead'

A health official says fighting for control of Yemen's southern city of Aden has left at least 185 people dead.

Al-Qaeda insurgents have advanced into a major city in south-eastern Yemen, officials say. (AAP)

Fierce fighting for control of Yemen's main southern city Aden has left at least 185 people dead, including many civilians, a medical official says.

The port city, a last foothold of supporters of absent President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, has been shaken by more than a week of clashes between Houthi rebels and loyalist militia backed by Saudi-led air strikes.

At least 185 dead and 1282 wounded from the fighting have been counted in hospitals in Aden since March 26, the city's health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar said.

Three-quarters were civilians, he added.

The toll does not include victims among the Houthi Shi'ite rebels and their allies who do not take their casualties to public hospitals, he said.

It also excludes victims of air raids by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab countries that have been pounding rebel positions across Yemen since March 26 to try to prevent the fall of Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh, he added.

Meanwhile, in the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa local residents said at least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded in a separate airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition.

Coalition jets targeted a camp manned by Houthi rebels in the eastern part of Sanaa, but one of their missiles mistakenly hit the village of Hajer Akash, the residents said.

"A search for survivors under the rubble is underway. Several of the injured people are in critical condition. The number of victims may increase," a resident said.

Lassouar called on international organisations and Arab states participating in the coalition to provide emergency medical assistance to hospitals in Aden.

"Medicine stocks are exhausted and hospitals can no longer cope with the increasing number of victims," he said.

The United Nations said on Thursday that 519 people had been killed and nearly 1700 injured in two weeks of fighting around the country.

The UN Security Council is due to meet on Saturday to discuss a Russian proposal for humanitarian pauses in the Saudi-led air campaign, according to diplomats in New York.