SANAA

Yemen’s Houthi rebel group said six of its commanders have been killed in recent battles with the government forces, according to the group-run Saba news agency.

According to the news agency, the funeral of the bodies of "Col. Abd al-Latif Saleh al-Ghafari, Col. Moeen Abdullah Mar'i, Col. Abd al-Badi` Abd al-Rab al-Houthi and Col. Ali Yahya al-Wajih" were held in Sanaa on Wednesday, while the funerals of Brig. Yahya Abdel-Jabbar Hassan Jahdan and Brig. Abdullah Muhammad Hanash took place on Tuesday.

The news agency said that the officers were "killed while defending national sovereignty” in the face of what they described as invaders and mercenaries on several fronts.

In the coastal province of Al-Hudaydah, clashes broke out on Thursday between government forces and Houthi rebels.

In a statement, the Giants Brigades affiliated with the government forces said: "The combined forces [the Giants Brigades, the National Resistance, and the Tuhami] have inflicted heavy losses on Houthi militias in terms of equipment and lives as violent clashes erupted when the militias attempted to infiltrate and attack the positions of the forces east of the city of Ad-Durayhimi, south of Al-Hudaydah."

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

Since then, tens of thousands of Yemenis, including numerous civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, while another 14 million are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.

*Bassel Ibrahim contributed to this report from Ankara.