Yemeni general among several dead in Houthi missile attack

Yemen's deputy chief of staff was killed on Wednesday when the Houthi movement battling government forces fired a ballistic missile at an army camp on the Red Sea coast, according to a military source.

The attack killing Major General Ahmed Saif al-Yafei was a blow to Yemeni government forces and hit outside the strategic coastal city of Mokha, which they captured from the Iran-allied Houthis last month.

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war nearly two years ago to back President Abd Rabbuh Hadi after he was run out of the capital Sanaa by Houthi forces.

"Major General Ahmed Saif al-Yafei was killed along with several others when the missile hit the camp near al-Mokha city early this morning," the military source, who is also a member of the general's family, told Reuters.

Saudi-owned Arabiya TV also reported Yafei's death.

Mokha lies close to the Bab al-Mandab strait through which much of the world's oil passes.