SANAA, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's government said on Thursday that its troops have killed 15 Houthi rebels in battles over the past 24 hours in east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
Dozens of other rebels were wounded in the consecutive attacks launched by the government forces against the rebel-held positions in Sirwah district, the government-run September Net reported.
Meanwhile, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported that three airstrikes by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which back the Yemeni government, hit Sirwah earlier on the day.
The eastern front of Sirwah, which is located in the east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa and the west of the government-held Marib province, has been the scene of almost daily fighting between the rival forces.
Separately, the United Nations-brokered ceasefire has been largely held in the western front of the country's flashpoint Red Sea port city of Hodeidah despite some skirmishes between the warring forces.
Patrick Cammaert, the UN-appointed chairman of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) in Hodeidah which includes representatives from both Yemeni rival forces, held a joint meeting on Thursday to discuss the redeployment plans and mechanism that will ensure the mutual withdrawal of forces from Hodeidah city and its port in the next few days.
Cammaert arrived in Hodeidah last week to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire and the confidence-rebuilding measures agreed by the Yemeni parties during the Stockholm-based peace talks held last month.
Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since March 2015, in order to reinstate the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
