Summary Yemen's government has retaken a Red Sea town from Huthi insurgents.
ADEN (AFP) - Yemen s government has retaken a Red Sea town from Huthi insurgents in clashes that left dozens of fighters dead, officials said Thursday, days after President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi s administration ordered troops to advance on the rebel-held capital.
Medical sources said 16 government soldiers and 41 Huthi rebels were killed in the fight for Khokha, under rebel control since January -- with the Huthis also coming under attack by Arab coalition air raids.
Some 30 rebels were detained, while the hospital sources said dozens of combatants were wounded.
The war-torn Arabian Peninsula country has been plunged deeper into turmoil by Monday s killing of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh at the hands of the Huthis after his alliance with the insurgents collapsed.
The capital Sanaa is now largely under the control of the Huthis -- northern tribes with links to Iran -- after clashes between the rebels and Saleh loyalists erupted last week.
Khokha lies between rebel-held Hodeida and government-controlled Mokha on the Red Sea coast and is central to the expansion of government control over the strategic coastline.
The port of Hodeida is the main conduit for UN-supervised deliveries of food and medicine to Yemen, where poverty has been compounded by war and a blockade on ports and airports imposed by the Saudi-led coalition.
Riyadh and its allies accuse their arch-rival Iran of arming the Shiite rebels. Tehran denies the accusation.
More than 8,750 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government s fight against the Huthis in 2015, triggering what the UN has called the world s worst humanitarian crisis.
