Saudi Arabia has reportedly removed border fences with Yemen in a measure that could suggest Riyadh is preparing for a ground invasion of its southern neighbor days after unleashing airstrikes against the violence-hit country.

Local Yemeni sources reported on Thursday that Saudi forces had opened border fences with the northwestern Yemeni province of Hajjah.

The three crossings are “Al-Tawal”, “Al-Wadia” and “Al-Khadraa” between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Accordng to Ahram Online, the Egyptian foreign ministry is calling the 6-7,000 expats wishing to return home to immediately be directed to “Al-Tawal” border crossing.

Also on Thursday, local media sources broadcast online video footage, which apparently shows Saudi tanks being transferred to border areas with Yemen.

Meanwhile, other reports said al-Qaeda militants in Yemen stormed the center of the port city of al-Mukalla in the province of Hadhramaut early on Thursday, releasing some 300 inmates, including dozens of militants.

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen started on March 26 in a bid to restore power to Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Nearly 200 people have lost their lives in Yemen since Saudi-led airstrikes began on March 26. Many of the casualties are civilians, among them women and children.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by the Houthi movement.

However, the Houthi movement later said Hadi had lost his legitimacy as president of Yemen after he escaped Sana’a to Aden in February.

On March 25, the embattled president fled the southern city of Aden, where he had sought to set up a rival power base, to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, after Houthi fighters advanced on Aden. (Albawaba)

Kurdish official has revealed that its expected Pope Francis to visit Iraqi Kurdistan Region, however, the date of the visit has not been set, according BasNews.

Pope Francis’s representative, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, arrived in Erbil on 31st March and was welcomed by the Kurdistan Region’s Minister of Endowment and Religious Affairs Kamal Muslim, and the General Director for the Christian Affairs.

Muslim told the reporters, “Cardinal Filoni is in Kurdistan to witness the situation of the displaced people and refugees.”

Former spokesperson of the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs Mariwan Naqshbandi told BasNews, “When he met Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani at the Vatican last May, Pope Francis promised Barzani he would visit Kurdistan in the future.”

“His schedule to visit Kurdistan has not yet been announced,” Naqshbandi said.

Kurdistan Region currently hosts thousands of Iraqi Christian refugees, who has left their homes from Middle and Southern Iraqi provinces.

Vatican has continuously acknowledged the role KRG has played in protecting Iraqi Christians from the extremist group.

Islamic State, wrote Vocativ.com,  has launched a dress-code campaign in the Iraqi city of Mosul, with billboards displaying guidelines for being a “good Muslim woman”.

Vocativ discovered images posted by the Islamic State supporters showing ISIS members hanging the billboards in the Iraqi city that has been under the control of the militant group for almost one year.

The campaign focuses on a style of burqa—also mandated by the Taliban—which covers the entire body and face with a mesh screen over her eyes.

It also suggests that women who do not follow the guidelines may be subject to corporal punishment, though it is not specific about penalties.

Attempting to give the rules a positive spin, some of the billboards combine dress-code regulations with empowerment slogans such as, “the Muslim woman is queen in her house.”

Unconfirmed reports, told BBC,  have emerged of foreign troops landing in the Yemeni port city of Aden. It is not clear what nationality they are.

Aden has been the scene of fierce fighting as Houthi rebels have tried to advance on the heart of the city using tanks and armoured vehicles.

A Saudi-led coalition has staged seven nights of anti-rebel airstrikes.

Last week the rebels seemed close to taking Aden, forcing President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee.

The Houthis have said their aim is to replace President Hadi’s government, which they accuse of being corrupt.

The rebels are supported by army units loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

More than 25,000 foreign fighters from some 100 countries are linked to al Qaeda and ISIS, United Nations experts reported to the U.N. Security Council.

Along with some 22,000 foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, there were also 6,500 in Afghanistan and hundreds more in Yemen, Libya, Pakistan and Somalia.

At a meeting of the 15-member Security Council chaired by President Barack Obama in September, the experts were asked to report within six months on the threat from foreign fighters joining ISIS, which has declared a caliphate in Syria and Iraq, Nusra Front in Syria and other al Qaeda-linked groups.

“For the thousands of (foreign fighters) who traveled to the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq … they live and work in a veritable ‘international finishing school’ for extremists as it was in the case in Afghanistan during the 1990s,” the experts wrote in their report submitted to the council late this month. “Those who eat together and bond together can bomb together.”

Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden found refuge in Afghanistan in the 1990s, where the militant group ran training camps.

The report also said an unintended consequence of defeating ISIS in Syria and Iraq could be the scattering of violent foreign fighters across the world.

Palestinian fighters and Syrian rebels retook control Thursday of large parts of a refugee camp in Damascus that had been seized by Islamic State terrorists, a monitoring group said, according to AFP. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a number of armed groups in the Yarmouk camp in south Damascus “were able to regain control over all of the areas that ISIS had taken over.”

The terrorists overran the camp on Wednesday, raising fears for thousands of civilians inside and giving ISIS a potential beachhead inside Syria’s capital.

But armed Palestinian groups, backed by local rebels, launched a fightback later in the day.

“Syrian rebel groups entered the camp and helped the Palestinians push back ISIS in fierce clashes,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Observatory.

Anwar Abdel Hadi, director of political affairs for the Palestine Liberation Organization in Damascus, said ISIS had been pushed “to the periphery” of the camp.

He said Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, a group loyal to Palestinian terror group Hamas, had clashed with ISIS overnight.

Six people were killed and 17 injured, he said, but he could not provide details on the toll.

The Britain-based Observatory said IS still controlled “some areas” in the camp and put the death toll at three.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it was “extremely concerned” about the safety of civilians in Yarmouk.

“UNRWA estimates that there are some 3,500 children among the 18,000 civilians living in Yarmouk. The intense armed clashes put these children at risk of serious injury and death,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said.

Yarmouk, located only about six kilometers (four miles) from downtown Damascus, was once a thriving home to 160,000 Palestinian refugees and Syrians.

But it has been devastated by fighting and a tight blockade imposed by the army nearly two years ago that created dire humanitarian conditions.