More than 150 dead in fresh Yemen violence: officials

Civilians are among those killed in days of clashes between pro-government forces and Houthi rebels along the western coast and Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on the war-torn country.

Four civilians were killed and 10 others wounded on Saturday when a coalition airstrike struck near a gas station in the capital Sanaa, officials said. 

Government forces have been trying to seize rebel-held areas along the country’s western coast, while an allied Arab-led coalition has been targeting the rebels with airstrikes in the northwestern rebel stronghold of Saada.

The offensive is being waged by ground troops carrying sophisticated weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles, with air cover from the coalition, the officials said.

In March, an international rights group said fighting along Yemen’s west coast has displaced 100,000 people in recent months, mostly from the Red Sea port city of Hodeida. Amnesty International warned that the “the worst could be yet to come.”

The port is a vital lifeline from which most of the Yemeni population’s food and medicine comes. The coalition accuses the Houthis of using Hodeida and other ports to receive weapons and ammunition from Iran, which denies arming the rebels.

Meanwhile, Riyadh reported that two soldiers from its national guard had been killed in fighting against the Houthis along the kingdom’s southern border with Yemen.

The official SPA news agency did not provide details on when or how they died.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia tested a new siren system for the capital Riyadh and the oil-rich Eastern Province, in recognition of a threat posed by the Houthi rebels, who have in recent months increased cross-border missiles.

Riyadh accuses its regional rival Tehran of supplying the Houthis with ballistic missiles, a charge Iran denies. 

More than 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention in Yemen.

Meanwhile, more than 2,200 others have died from cholera and millions are on the verge of famine in what the United Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.