The Saudi-led coalition has killed a Houthi military chief loyal to deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in an attack on his convoy in northwest Yemen, al-Arabiya satellite news channel said on Friday.
Abdullah Yahya al-Sanaani was killed in the attack in Suhar, a central district in Saada province bordering Saudi Arabia, al-Arabiya reported.
Sanaani was in charge of boosting the morale of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who forced the internationally recognised government of Abedrabbu Hadi Mansour into exile after they took the capital Sanaa in September 2014 and pushed south.
At least 12 Houthi fighters were killed on Friday in an ambush in Thi Naim district in the southwestern governorate of al-Bayda, al-Arabiya reported.
The Yemeni Army has meanwhile advanced in Hayfan district south of the southwestern province of Taiz and surrounded Houthi-allied militias in al-Anawir village.
US undersecretary of state for political affairs Thomas Shannon met Houthi negotiators, Saleh's allied General People’s Congress (GPC) party and an Omani mediator in Muscat last week for talks on how to end the war that has killed over 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million since the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes in March 2015.
Peace negotiations foundered after the Houthis and GPC announced the formation of a 10-member governing council on 6 August ignoring a United Nations warning that such a move would violate Security Council resolutions on how to solve the conflict.
The fighting has created a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country, leaving more than 80 percent of Yemen's population in need of emergency food and life-saving assistance.
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