ADEN: At least 23 Houthi rebels were killed on Monday in an air strike by pro-government Arab coalition warplanes as well as clashes in western Yemen, officials said.

The strike on a military base in the city of Bajil, northeast of provincial capital Hodeida on the Red Sea, killed 16 rebels, said a medical official and a military source.

The raid by warplanes from the Saudi-led Arab coalition wounded 23 others, the sources in Hodeida said.

To the south, clashes between the rebels and loyalists near the city of Mokha left six insurgents dead, according to the same sources who said their bodies were taken to a morgue in Hodeida.

Troops loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took Mokha on February 10 and announced they aimed to push north and take the country’s main Red Sea port of Hodeida next.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017