Forces loyal to Yemen's exiled government recaptured a southern provincial capital from Shiite rebels and their allies on Sunday as they pressed an advance from second city Aden.

Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, had been held by troops of the renegade 15th Brigade which remains loyal to ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh who is allied with the rebels.

Troops entered the coastal town, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Aden, after overrunning the brigade's barracks outside, the sources said.

It is the third southern provincial capital from which the rebels have been driven out. The loyalists secured Aden in mid-July and Lahj provincial capital Huta on August 4.