Seven Houthi members, including a senior commander, were killed during clashes with Yemeni government forces near the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a Yemeni government official said on Saturday.
Deputy Information Minister Abdulbasit al-Qaedi said in a post on X that Houthi commander Firaq Mohsen al-Assar and six of his aides were killed on the Kahboub front in southwestern Yemen.
The Houthis did not immediately issue an official response to the government’s account. However, activists close to the group mourned al-Assar without providing details about how or where he was killed.
The Kahboub front, which encompasses mountainous terrain overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, has reportedly witnessed intense fighting between government forces and the Houthis in recent days.
The casualty figures and circumstances of the deaths were announced by the Yemeni government and have not been independently confirmed.
Fighting in Yemen has intensified since early July after several years of relative calm, with clashes reported across fronts in Marib, Al-Jawf, Taiz, Lahj and Al-Bayda provinces. The Houthis have claimed advances in some areas and have also been accused of attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure.
Yemen’s civil war began after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and other parts of the country in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.