Artillery shelling kills 10 Houthi rebels in southern Yemen

ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least ten Houthi rebels were killed when artillery shelling targeted their locations near the government-controlled province of Lahj on Monday, a military official told Xinhua.

The pro-government army units supported by the Saudi-led coalition carried out a heavy artillery shelling on Houthi-held locations near the mountains of Kahboob in southern Lahj province, the military official said on condition of anonymity.

He said that the artillery shelling precisely destroyed the hideouts of Houthis and killed at least ten rebels and injured several others at the scene.

Two Houthi vehicles which arrived later in the area and tried to rescue the injured rebels were also targeted during the artillery shelling, the source added.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni army aborted several attempts by Houthi rebels who repeatedly attempt to make overnight infiltration into the government-controlled provinces in the country's southern part.

Despite the continuing aerial bombardment by the Saudi-led warplanes, Houthis are still positioned in mountainous areas close to Lahj province, where a key air base of the coalition is located.

The Sudanese troops and other forces of the Saudi-led coalition are using military bases in Lahj for training hundreds of newly-recruited Yemeni soldiers to fight Houthis and confront terrorist groups.

Yemen's internationally-backed government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for about three 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. Enditem