Dozens killed in heavy fighting near Yemen's Hodeida

Fighting between Yemeni pro-government forces and Houthi rebels along the country's west coast has left dozens dead in recent days, officials and witnesses reported on Sunday.

Casualties were inflicted on both sides, the sources said, as part of the ongoing battle for control of the rebel-held district of Zabid in the port province of Hodeida.

An official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said that air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition targeted Houthi rebels in the district of ad-Durayhimi, south of Hodeida on Sunday, killing 18 at least people.

Saudi-led forces resumed airstrikes on Hodeida on Friday, ending a ceasefire announced on 1 July. The airstrikes came after Houthi rebels attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea on Wednesday and reportedly launched a drone attack against the Abu Dhabi international airport on Thursday.

Hodeida is the latest battlefront in a war that has killed nearly 10,000 people since 2015, most of them civilians, and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.