Sixteen Houthis have been killed and 24 wounded in 24 hours of air raids by a Saudi-led coalition targeting the Houthi fighters in Yemen, a military official and medics said Saturday.

The strikes came on the eve of Sunday's second anniversary of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, an intervention which has seen the UK and US criticised for providing military and logistical support.

The Houthis were killed in air strikes on an air base and arms depot in the east of Hodeida province since Friday, the Saudi official said.

A source in the coalition supporting President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi's government told AFP that Hodeida was one of the areas being targeted as part of ongoing military operations on areas under rebel control.

The dead and wounded were transferred to al-Alfi military hospital and al-Thawra hospital in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida, medics at the hospitals said.

The Red Sea port city is a key transit point for desperately needed imports into war-torn Yemen, where fighting has escalated since the March 2015 military intervention of the coalition against the Houthis.

Since the start of the conflict in Yemen, 10,000 people have been killed and millions left without access to vital infrastructure, clean water or electricity, according to the United Nations. Campaigners say the real death toll is higher.

-Agencies