Scores killed in Yemen violence

By Ali Owaida and Murad al-Arifi

SANAA

At least 56 people, mostly Houthi rebels, were killed in a new bout of violence across war-torn Yemen on Friday.

Saudi-led warplanes struck a meeting of Houthi rebels in Hajjah province in northwestern Yemen, the Yemeni army said in a statement.

“At least 20 Houthi militants were killed in the raid,” the statement said, giving no further details.

There was no comment from the Saudi-led coalition on the report.

Twenty-one Houthis were also killed in clashes with forces aligned with Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in the central Taiz province.

“Seven pro-government troops were also killed in the violence,” pro-Hadi fighters said in a statement.

In another development, seven Houthis and allied forces of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed in clashes with pro-government fighters in the northern Jawf province.

“Scores of Houthis were also injured in the confrontations,” a source with pro-government forces told Anadolu Agency.

The source, who spoke anonymously due to security concerns, said a government soldier was also killed in the violence.

The Shia Houthi group never comments on its casualties.

Yemen has been ravaged by civil war since late 2014, when Houthi rebels overran capital Sanaa and a number of other provinces, forcing Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south -- including provisional capital Aden -- but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than three million Yemenis have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in the Arab country.