Dozens killed in crossroads city

Saudi- led fighters clash withHouthi rebels in Yemen

SANA, Yemen — Fierce fighting in the crossroads city of Taiz in Yemen killed dozens of people, officials and aid groups said Friday, with deaths blamed on airstrikes by a Saudiled military coalition and shelling by Houthi rebels.

A wave of airstrikes beginning Thursday and continuing Friday has killed more than 60 people, Yemen’s Houthi- run Health Ministry said. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said at least 65 people were killed, including 17 members of one family.

Yemen’s many- sided war has taken a ferocious turn in recent weeks, as forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi seek to wrest back territory from the Houthis, who surged out of northern strongholds and seized the capital, Sana, nearly a year ago.

Contested Taiz is a gateway to Sana, and many fear an even more bloody confrontation there as forces allied with Hadi continue to push their way northward. The capital has been hit this week by renewed airstrikes after a few weeks’ respite.

Sunni Muslim- dominated Saudi Arabia sees the Shiite Muslim Houthis as proxies of Iran, whose influence in the region the kingdom is seeking to check. Iran denies arming the rebels but has bitterly denounced the intervention by Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies.

The Saudi- led campaign of bombardment began nearly five months ago with the stated aim of restoring Hadi’s government. The death toll in fighting since then has climbed above 4,500, the United Nations said this week, with about half of those thought to be civilians.

The conflict has triggered an enormous humanitarian crisis. The World Food Program said this week that the country, already the Arab world’s poorest, is on the brink of famine.