Journalist killed while reporting ongoing fighting in southern Yemen

A Yemeni journalist was killed on Sunday while covering ongoing fighting between Yemeni government forces and the Houthi rebels in the southern province of al-Dhalea, a government official told Xinhua.

The local government source based in the war-torn province said on condition of anonymity that Ghalib Labhash, local journalist and videographer, was killed while recording the intense fighting taking place in Hajar village to the western side of al-Dhalea, 245 km south of Sanaa.

The source said that the journalist was shot dead immediately while he was accompanying the pro-government forces that launched a wide-scale military operation against the Houthi-controlled sites on the city's outskirts.

Another source of the local authority in al-Dhalea confirmed that "a Houthi sniper opened fire and killed Ghalib Labhash at the scene after receiving a bullet in his head."

The journalist was working as a videographer for a number of local and international media outlets and served as a spokesman for the pro-secesssion Southern Transitional Council in al-Dhalea.

Nearly 17 Yemeni journalists are still kidnapped by the Houthi group, according to the Yemeni press union.

Yemen has been locked in a civil war since the Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014.

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that has intervened in Yemen's conflict since 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile.

The prolonged military conflict has aggravated the suffering of Yemenis and deepened the world's worst humanitarian crisis.