A total of 16 people were killed as a result of an aerial bombardment against Houthi military vehicles in Yemen’s southwestern province of Taiz, a military official told Xinhua on Saturday.

“An airstrike was launched late on Friday night and struck a convoy of the Houthi rebel militia in the countryside district of Maqbanah in Taiz, causing a huge explosion,” the local military source said on condition of anonymity.

The airstrike struck the Houthi military convoy when it was passing through an area held by a group of civilians, he added, Xinhua news agency reported.

The source confirmed that the aerial bombardment, which partially destroyed the convoy, killed 16 people including five civilians, and wounded about eight.

The district of Maqbanah in Taiz is controlled by the Houthi rebels, and the group accused the Saudi-led coalition of carrying out an aerial bombardment against the district.

The Houthi-affiliated Masirah television network reported that 16 civilians including children were killed “in a raid carried out by the Saudi warplane in Maqbanah district on Friday night.”

The Saudi-led coalition has made no immediate comment yet, but it has recently intensified airstrikes against various Houthi-held sites across the war-ravaged Arab country.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the internationally-recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi’s government.