Random shelling kills 16 women, children in Yemen's Taiz

 Sixteen Yemeni civilians were killed and scores others injured early Monday in random shelling and exchange of gunfire between the Shiite Houthi group and pro-government fighters in the southern province of Taiz, security sources and medics told Xinhua.

Several mortar shells and Katyusha rockets landed on residential areas and damaged three houses in a neighborhood in Taiz, leaving 13 women and three children dead and scores others injured, the security source, based in Taiz, said on condition of anonymity.

Over the past week, at least 130 civilians were killed and 450 wounded in Taiz city in random shelling and errant Saudi-led airstrikes, a top Yemeni medical official told Xinhua.

This latest deaths came amid continued fierce clashes between Houthi militiamen and armed tribesmen loyal to Yemen's exiled government in several neighborhoods of Taiz city.

A tribal source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that dozens were killed and many others injured from both sides during armed confrontations near the presidential palace in Taiz.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led Arab coalition launched a series of airstrikes against Houthi-controlled military sites near the strategic Red Sea strait of Bab El-Mandeb and the port town of Mocha, military sources said.

The military sources confirmed that more than 15 Houthi gunmen were killed by in the airstrikes, which also targetted army brigades manned by the Shiite group in Yemen's western port city of al-Hodyada on Sunday.

The nearly five-month escalating violence across Yemen has left over 80 percent of the country's population, or more than 20 million people, in need of emergency aid amid limited access to food, water, fuel, electricity and medicine.

Forces loyal to the government exiled to the Saudi capital Riyadh have recently achieved a series of advances, backed by the Saudi-led coalition's warplanes against rebel positions.

The coalition has conducted almost daily airstrikes since March 26 when Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled to Riyadh to take refuge, aiming to restore Hadi's authority in the country.