ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Yemeni government forces on Sunday managed to defuse a sea mine placed near a fishing port in the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, a military official told Xinhua.
The official based in Hodeidah said on condition of anonymity that "a team of explosive experts succeeded in defusing a mine found planted near the port of Haimah in Khokhah district located south of Hodeidah province."
The official said that the experts of the government forces dealt with the marine mine immediately after its discovery and dismantle it.
The engineering teams of the joint forces had already cleared and dismantled several naval mines that had been planted by Houthi militias in the same area before their withdrawal, according to the source.
On Saturday, a girl was killed during a landmine explosion that occurred in Waziyah area near the Yemeni west coast.
Elsewhere in Yemen, two explosive experts working with the government forces were killed while trying to dismantle an explosive device planted by terrorist elements near Mukalla of Hadramout province.
Landmines and explosives of various kinds and sizes are considered a deadly long-standing threat to the lives of millions of Yemenis and have killed and injured hundreds of them, including women and children.
Previous reports of humanitarian organizations suggested that Yemen has become one of the largest landmine battlefields in the world since the World War II.
The Houthi rebels launched a large military campaign and seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forcing Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries intervened militarily and began pounding the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa in March 2015 in response to an official public request from Hadi to protect Yemen and roll back Iran's influence.
The conflict between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has recently entered its fifth year, aggravating the suffering of Yemenis and deepening the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
