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Yemeni security officials and witnesses have said an ambush in the port city of Mocha killed 44 anti-rebel fighters.

The officials said that the ambush by the Houthi rebels took place on Monday.

In a separate development, security officials say more than 20 Houthi fighters were killed on Monday and Tuesday in clashes in the central Marib province.

The officials, who are neutral in a conflict that has split the armed forces, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief reporters. Witnesses declined to give their names for fear of reprisals.

The Houthis, backed by renegade troops still loyal to ousted president Ali Abdallah Saleh, overran the capital Sanaa in September last year and then seized much of the rest of the country.

Loyalist and coalition forces have pushed them out of most of the south since March and are battling them in Marib province east of the capital and around third city Taiz.

The coalition too has been heavily criticised by human rights groups for the civilian death toll from its air raids.

Landmines and malnutrition

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch that landmines planted by Yemeni rebels to halt the advance of pro-government forces are exacting a mounting toll on civilians.

	Houthi landmines have killed at least 12 civilains [HRW]

Civilians already account for more than half of the 5,000 people killed since a Saudi-led coalition launched a military intervention against the Houthi rebels in March, according to the UN.

"Landmines have killed at least 12 people and wounded over nine," Human Rights Watch said, adding that the real casualty toll "may be much higher."

"The Houthis are killing and maiming civilians with landmines," said HRW's arms director Steve Goose.

"Antipersonnel landmines are indiscriminate weapons that should not be used under any circumstances."

More than half a million children are facing life-threatening severe malnutrition in Yemen where the humanitarian crisis is worsening, the head of the UN children's agency UNICEF on Tuesday.

"The stunting rates in Yemen are likely to go up. It means children do not reach their full height but also that their cognitive capacities are affected, which becomes a permanent burden on the whole society," said Anthony Lake in an interview with AFP.

The UN has designated Yemen as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises with 80 percent of the population on the brink of famine.

The UN has designated Yemen as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises with 80 percent of the population on the brink of famine.