40 Houthi rebels killed in clashes with Yemeni gov't forces

A total of 40 Houthi rebels were killed during armed confrontations with the Yemeni government forces in the central province of al-Bayda on Friday, state-run Saba news agency reported.

Around 30 Houthi members died as a result of armed confrontations with the government forces stationed in Malajem district of al-Bayda province, the country's official news agency said.

Other 10 Houthi rebels were killed by an airstrike launched by the Saudi-led warplanes near the fighting site in the same province, according to Saba.

The government forces managed to abort several Houthi infiltration attempts and repulsed their attacks successfully, Saba quoted local military officials as saying.

Armed confrontations between Yemen's government forces and the Houthi rebels continued in various places of the impoverished Arab country despite the temporary halt of fighting.

The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014.

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced him into exile.

The United Nations has listed Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with seven million Yemenis on the brink of famine and cholera causing more than 2,000 deaths.