ADEN, Yemen, July 29 (Xinhua) -- At least 14 pro-government fighters were killed and nearly 20 others injured in a missile attack by the Shiite Houthi group near the Yemeni coastal city of Mocha on Saturday, a local army commander told Xinhua.
The Houthi fighters fired a number of heat-seeking missiles and targeted two battalions of armed forces loyal to the internationally-backed government in the Mawza district, the army commander said on condition of anonymity.
The attack occurred just hours after the pro-government forces restarted the anti-Houthi military offensive in areas near Mocha.
On Wednesday, the Yemeni state TV channel based in Saudi Arabia said the government forces recaptured a strategic military base from Houthis after months of intense fighting and airstrikes on the country's western coast, which left scores killed from both sides.
Yemen's internationally-backed government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the country.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led Arab military coalition imposed an air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Iranian-backed Houthis, who invaded capital Sanaa militarily and seized most northern Yemeni provinces.
Statistics showed more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the civil war in 2015.
The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera outbreak, where about 5,000 cases are reported every day.
