Houthi attack kills three members of Yemen govt forces - Military source

"Three killed and four wounded in a preliminary toll from the Houthi drone attack on the Harib area, in the south of Marib," the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The official had earlier told AFP that artillery exchanges and clashes were taking place in Sirwah and on the Al-Kasara front, north of Marib city, where Houthi drones were spotted.

The rebels also hit an arms depot in the province.

The latest violence has raised the spectre of a return to war in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, where a 2022 truce between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government had largely held before unravelling last month.

On Thursday, the Iran-backed rebels killed at least 58 government troops in missile and drone attacks, a military source said, in one of the deadliest incidents between the two sides in years.

Yemen, which has been embroiled in more than a decade of war, last month became the latest front to be sucked into the US-Iran conflict, as the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels upended the 2022 truce.

The rebels welcomed an Iranian plane directly to the capital Sanaa, triggering a series of tit-for-tat attacks, and later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its tankers.

Last month, the Houthis killed 16 troops in an attack on government-aligned forces south of the port city of Hodeidah, two medical officials told AFP.