Attacks by Houthi rebels in southern Yemen have killed 12 civilians over two days, government officials said on Sunday.

A mother and four children were killed by a rebel rocket in the government-controlled Jebel Habashi area of Taez province on Sunday, a local official told AFP.

"The rebels targeted the village of Musharraf between the districts of Maafer and Jebel Habashi near to besieged city of Taez, killing the five family members," local media reported.

The official said the Katyusha rocket completely destroyed the family's home about 35 kilometres west of Taez city, which is controlled by pro-government forces but surrounded by the rebels. Yemen's third-largest city has been at the centre of the country's devastating four year civil war.

On Saturday, seven members of a family, including two women, were killed in Houthi shelling in Qataba district of Al Dhalea province, officials said.

The attack was carried out in area of the province where government forces are fighting to recapture territory seized by the Houthis earlier this month.

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war pitting the Iran-backed Houthis against the government of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi since March 2015.

The government is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition that has carried out air strikes against the rebels and provided equipment and training for government forces.

On Saturday, coalition strikes killed and wounded a number of rebel fighters in Taez and destroyed their military vehicles, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The war has devastated Yemen, already the poorest Arab nation, and created what the UN says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of people dependent on aid to survive.

The United Nations is trying to broker a political compromise to end the war but a UN-brokered deal to stop fighting in the vital port city of Hodeidah last December has yet to be implemented.

The warring sides had agreed to a ceasefire and a troop withdrawal from Hodeidah, seen as confidence-building measures to pave the way for talks on forming a transitional government.

AFP.