8 pro-gov't Yemeni fighters killed in fighting with Houthis

APD NEWS

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Eight fighters loyal to Yemen's internationally-backed government were killed and several others injured in clashes with Shiite Houthi rebels near the Red Sea coast city of Mocha on Wednesday, a military official told Xinhua.

"The clashes broke out after a group of Shiite Houthi rebels attempted to sneak into military sites held by Saudi-backed Yemeni fighters in Muzaa area near the Red Sea coast city of Mocha," the local military official said on condition of anonymity.

The pro-government forces in Mocha city retaliated by launching a large-scale armed attack with tanks and artillery against the Houthi-held areas near Mocha, the source said.

Medical sources confirmed to Xinhua that about eight fighters allied with the legitimate government were killed in the fighting with the Houthi rebels and several others injured.

Other military sources confirmed that the casualties are likely to rise due to inability of ambulances to access the area of the clashes and to transfer victims to public hospitals in Aden.

There was no official statement from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government but local activists revealed in social media the names and personal pictures of those killed.

Yemen's internationally-backed government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for more than two years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels over control of the country.

The coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to the power.

The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around three million.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported every day.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)