ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- At least three Yemeni civilians were killed in a bomb explosion in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday, a local medical official told Xinhua.
"The field hospital received bodies of three family members, including two women, who were all killed during a bomb explosion in Hays district," the official said on condition of anonymity.
A statement issued by the pro-government forces also confirmed the death of the three people "in an explosion while passing through a main road."
The statement accused the Iranian-backed Houthis of being behind the deadly bomb explosion.
The Houthis regularly plant landmines and other explosive devices to target the government forces, causing casualties among innocent civilians, the statement said.
Hodeidah, the lifeline of Yemen's most commercial imports and humanitarian aid, has become the focal point of the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen since 2015.
Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa and Hodeidah.
The four-year civil war in Yemen has pushed more than 12 million people to the verge of starvation and created what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The Yemeni warring parties reached a peace deal in Stockholm last December. They have largely held the cease-fire deal in Hodeidah but failed to withdraw their forces.
The Iranian-allied rebels continue to fortify themselves inside Hodeidah while the Saudi-backed government troops have been gathering on the southern and eastern outskirts.
Last week's negotiations led by Michael Anker Lollesgaard, head of the UN cease-fire monitor team in Hodeidah, resulted in what the UN called a "preliminary compromise," but the warring parties showed disputes over the compromise.
