156 Houthi militants killed in battles with Yemen army

Sanaa, Feb 20 At least 156 Houthi militants were killed in battles with the Yemen government army in the past two days in the northern province of Hajjah, military sources said.

The battle raged on in Harad city near the Saudi border and the adjacent Abs district.

"A total of 106 militants were killed on Friday in a battle with the government armed forces in Harad," one of the sources told Xinhua news agency on Saturday.

"Dozens of vehicles of the Houthi militia were also bombed by the coalition airstrikes," the source added, referring to the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government army.

The battle in Harad erupted days after the Houthi militia drove the government army out of the city, killing more than 60 soldiers and wounding 140 others, according to the military sources.

In Abd district, the Yemeni troops backed by the coalition warplanes repelled on February 17 an attempted advance of the Houthi militia towards the positions of the Yemeni army.

"Fifty Houthis were killed on the spot and dozens of the militants wounded," another military source on the frontline of the Bani Hasan area told Xinhua.

"The army also shot down 10 bomb-laden drones," he added.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

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