ADEN: Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 16 troops in an attack on government-aligned forces south of the port city of Hodeidah, two medical officials said on Sunday, in some of the most violent fighting bet­ween the sides in years.

The two medical sources said hospitals in the area on the Red Sea coast received 16 dead from pro-government forces and 22 wounded.

Earlier an officer with the government-aligned forces in Jabal Dubas in the Hays district, where the clashes took place, gave a provisional toll of 14 troops and 23 injured in “fierce fighting”.

The officer said the Houthis briefly took control of pro-government positions in the clashes, which began late on Friday, before a counterattack to retake them concluded at dawn on Saturday.

“This was the deadliest Houthi attack in years,” the officer said. He described how the rebels had attacked with snipers, which accounted for most of the casualties, before launching drone and mortar salvos.

Another military official said pro-government forces had repelled the Houthi attack in Hays district in “clashes lasting for several hours”.

He added “fighting resulted in dead and wounded among (Houthi) ranks,” without specifying the number killed in the opposing force.

The Houthis have been at war with the government since 2015 in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The rebels control Yemen’s capital Sanaa and much of the north, including Hodeidah on Yemen’s western Red Sea coast, while the internationally-recognised government holds much of the south.

The fighting between the two sides has largely been frozen since a UN-negotiated truce in 2022.

But on Friday the Houthis threatened airports and vital assets belonging to Saudi Arabia, a key backer of Yemen’s Aden-based government.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2026