SANAA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- At least eight fishermen were killed on Wednesday when a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit their boat off Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported.

The attack took place this morning, Saba said without providing further details.

However, there was no comment yet from the coalition on the rebels' report.

Hodeidah, the lifeline of Yemen's most commercial imports and humanitarian aid, has become the focal point of the coalition's war in Yemen since 2015.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa and Hodeidah.

The four-year civil war has pushed over 12 million people to the verge of starvation and created what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Yemeni warring parties reached a peace deal in Stockholm in December last year. They have largely held the cease-fire deal in Hodeidah but failed to withdraw their forces.

The Iranian-allied rebels continue to fortify themselves inside Hodeidah while the coalition-backed government troops have been massing in the southern and eastern outskirts.

Last week's negotiations led by Michael Anker Lollesgaard, head of the UN cease-fire monitor team in Hodeidah, resulted in what the UN called a "preliminary compromise," yet the warring parties showed disputes over it. Enditem

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