By AHMED AL-HAJ, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen's Shiite rebels and ground clashes over a key military base killed and wounded dozens of fighters on Tuesday, Yemeni security officials said.

According to the officials, at least 35 pro-government and rebel fighters died in the battle for the base in the southwestern port city of Mokha. The base is located along a vital road to the heavily contested western city of Taiz, the officials said.

The officials, who are neutral in Yemen's conflict, spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to reporters.

Yemen is torn by fighting between the U.S.-supported internationally recognized government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and rebels known as Houthis, allied with a former president.

The war has killed at least 5,700 people since March, when the fighting escalated and the Saudi-led air campaign began, according to the United Nations.

The Houthis control some areas around the government-held Taiz and are fighting to take the city. If they fail to take Taiz and lose the ground around it, it would cement their loss of the country's south and possibly force them into making concessions during negotiations.

On Monday, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told reporters in Geneva that Yemen's warring sides have agreed to hold peace talks in Switzerland next week.

Previous peace efforts have ended in failure, with the Yemeni government, which has been mostly in self-exile in Saudi Arabia, demanding the implementation of a U.N. resolution calling on the Houthis to lay down arms seized from the state and withdraw from territory, including the capital, Sanaa. The Houthis want broader negotiations on the country's political future.