ADEN, Yemen, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The internationally-backed Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi appointed on Thursday Khaled Al-Yamani as the new Foreign Affairs Minister, Saudi-based official Saba News Agency reported.

According to the statement released by the news agency based in Riyadh, the former Yemeni FM Abdul-Malik Al-Mekhlafi will become an advisor to Hadi.

Another presidential decree issued by Hadi appointed Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations in addition to his post as Ambassador of Yemen to the United States.

Yemen's government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for about three years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels over control of the country.

The coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled Hadi and his government to power.

The anti-Houthi coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.

UN statistics showed more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around 3 million.