ADEN, Yemen, April 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 48 fighters of the Shiite Houthi group were killed Wednesday in armed clashes with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Saudi-led airstrikes in two locations of the war-torn country.
A total of 18 Houthi rebels were killed and nearly 30 others injured in the gunbattles with the national army forces in southwestern city of Taiz, according to a statement revealed by the media center of the pro-government forces in the city.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Defense Ministry reported that 30 Houthi fighters were killed in the air bombardment by Saudi-led warplanes in central al-Bayda Province.
Two separate airstrikes hit a reinforcement convoy and another Houthi-controlled position in al-Bayda, the ministry said on its official website.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to roll back the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels and support the internationally-recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The coalition imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who have seized control of the capital Sanaa militarily and most of the northern Yemeni provinces since late 2014.
More than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, have been killed with over two millions displaced in the three-year war.
The UN has listed Yemen as the country of the world's most serious humanitarian crisis, where seven million Yemenis are on the brink of famine and cholera has caused more than 2,000 deaths.
