DUBAI — Fighting between Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in southwest Yemen killed more than 140 combatants between midday Saturday and early Sunday morning, military sources said.

 

Two military officials with the government forces told AFP that 84 of their troops were killed, mostly in missile attacks, while four Houthi military sources said 57 rebel fighters were killed in the same period.

 

Days-long clashes have erupted in Yemen over control of a gateway to the Red Sea in the deadliest fighting in the Arabian Peninsula country since a 2022 ceasefire between the two sides collapsed in July.

 

Beginning on Thursday, the Houthis launched an offensive aiming to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab chokepoint at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

 

According to an AFP tally compiled using various military and medical sources from both sides of the conflict, more than 300 combatants and some civilians have been killed since the start of the Houthi assault on Thursday.

 

One military official with the internationally recognised government based in Aden said fighting had subsided in the early hours of Sunday morning.

 

The military official said government "forces were able to establish positions for themselves north of Hays after advancing in the area", referring to a frontline district less than 30 kilometres inland from the Red Sea coast.

 

But the official added the Houthis had advanced west of Taiz, south of Hays, in their push towards the Bab al-Mandab.

 

In July, a fragile truce between the Houthis and Yemen's government fell apart after the rebels welcomed an Iranian plane to the capital Sanaa, setting off a spate of attacks.

 

The fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and government troops signals the emergence of a new front in the wider Middle East war, which broke out in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.