HAYS, Yemen: Fighting between Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces and the country's Houthi rebels killed more than 60 people on Saturday, including civilians, medical and military sources told The renewed clashes in Yemen's southwest over control of a gateway to the Red Sea came after Friday saw some of the deadliest fighting in years, following the collapse in July of a 2022 ceasefire. According to three Yemeni military sources, 26 government troops were killed during several hours of fighting in the country's southwest, while medical and military sources from the Iran-backed Houthis said 31 rebel fighters were killed.

One medical source in the government-held city of Taiz said a missile strike also killed six civilians travelling by bus and wounded seven others. A government official blamed the strike on the bus, travelling between Taiz and the seat of Yemen's internationally recognised government in Aden, on the Houthis. In Taiz, a military officer said the "coming hours will be decisive" after the Houthis seized positions near the city a day earlier.

The officer added that reinforcements had been arriving from Aden in response to the Houthi offensive, which aims to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab strait. In Hays district, 68 kilometres northwest of Taiz towards the Red Sea coast, Rashed Maghari, a Hays resident, said "there has been heavy Houthi shelling on Hays and its residents, but the district is tough" and will be hard to capture.

On Friday, the fighting in Yemen killed 129 people, according to an.