Battle rattles Yemen's Hodeidah after ceasefire reached

SANAA -- Fighting flared up on the outskirts of Yemen's Hodeidah on Saturday, residents said, just two days after Yemeni government and Houthi rebels reached a truce deal at UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden.

The battles in Durayhemi district, south of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, lasted six hours until the sunset.

Al-hodeidah Net reported that "the government troops have repelled a major attack launched by Houthi fighters who tried to break a siege on their followers in Durayhemi...dozens of rebels were killed and others were captured."

The UN-sponsored first round of Yemen peace talks concluded on Thursday with a deal between the Yemeni rival parties to cease fire in Hodeidah.

The deal was part of confidence-building measures that included the withdrawal of the rival forces for the port city within days.

Hodeidah is the main port of major imports and aid to the country's north. Houthis seized Hodeidah, the capital Sanaa and much of the north in late 2014, forcing the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia leading a military coalition of several Arab states intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to restore Hadi's government.