The U.S. ambassador to Yemen visited the country's embattled president Monday in the southern port city of Aden, where Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi has set up base after fleeing house arrest at the hands of Shiite rebels in the capital, Sanaa.

The visit reflected U.S. support for Hadi in his campaign against the rebels known as the Houthis, who in September overran Sanaa and in January declared they have taken over the country.

Ambassador Matthew Tueller was the first Western diplomat to visit Hadi since he fled Sanaa. As they took a walk around the presidential palace on Mt. Al-Asheqeen overlooking Aden, Tueller told cameras Hadi is the "legitimate" leader of Yemen.