Aden (Yemen), Sep 7 : At least 117 people have been killed in four days of fierce clashes between Yemeni government forces and the Houthi group in the western provinces of Taiz and Hodeidah, medical officials said.

A senior medical official accompanying government forces on the western coast frontlines told Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity that 54 government soldiers had been killed and many others wounded since fighting erupted on Thursday.

Two medical sources at Houthi-run hospitals in western Hodeidah province said 63 Houthi members had been killed during the same period, bringing the combined death toll from both sides to 117.

Yemeni government warplanes struck Houthi-held areas in the western provinces of Hodeidah and Taiz on Friday, backing ground troops battling a major Houthi offensive near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The airstrikes came as fierce fighting raged across multiple fronts in the two provinces, where Houthi fighters had made rapid advances over the past 24 hours, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the warplanes targeted Houthi positions and movements in areas of active ground combat. Further details on the strikes or casualties were not immediately available.

A government military official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that government forces also retook several key positions in western Taiz in a swift overnight counterattack, hours after Houthi members had seized them.

The latest escalation marks some of the heaviest ground fighting in western Yemen in recent years, raising concerns of a broader return to large-scale hostilities after years of relative calm across many of the country's frontlines.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year in support of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

/IANS