Yemen: Airstrikes, assassinations, clashes kill more than 40

More than 40 were killed in clashes and airstrikes in the southwest of Yemen in the past 24 hours, officials and medics said on Monday.

Soldiers, rebels and civilians were among those killed, more than two years after the war was launched by the Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Warplanes from the coalition pounded Houthi rebel positions east of the Red Sea port of Mokha and other areas within the Taiz province since Sunday, a military official said.

Clashes raged after the air raids in the Jabal al-Nar area east of Mokha and north of the city on the road to Hodeida, Yemen's main Red Sea port, the official said.

At least 17 rebels were killed in the airstrikes and fighting, medical sources in rebel-held Hodeida said.

The coalition-backed government says Hodeida is its next target in a months-long offensive aimed at pushing the Houthi insurgents away from the country's lengthy Red Sea coastline.

Another 11 rebels were killed in airstrikes on Kamran island and a base in Hodeida itself, the medical sources said.

'Assassination attempts'

Ten soldiers were also killed and 15 were wounded in confrontations, according to medical sources in Aden, the temporary base of the government as Sanaa remains under rebel control.

At the same time, authorities released footage of the killing of a would-be suicide bomber moments before he detonated his explosives at a checkpoint in the southern city.

The video shows the alleged bomber dressed in military fatigues and armed as he walked towards the checkpoint, before a disguised officer shot him dead after getting a tip off from agents in a watching car.  

On Monday, three civilians were killed and two others were wounded in a bombing that attempted to assassinate General Ali Muqbel Saleh, commander of the 33rd Armoured Brigade, in Daleh city, a security official said.

In Taiz, security forces arrested several men suspected belongint to an assassination ring, a military source told The New Arab. The groups sole purpose is to assassinate senior military figures and commanders, the anonymous source said.

The war between the government and the rebels escalated in March 2015 when the Arab coalition intervened in support of the internationally recognised President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people have been killed since then and more than 40,000 were left wounded in the impoverished state.

Yemen faces a serious risk of famine this year, the UN said.