Sanaa, Apr 8 (IANS): Landmines laid by the Houthi group during the years-long civil war in Yemen killed nearly 8,000 people so far, state-run news agency Saba reported.

According to the Saba news agency, the mines and explosives planted by the Houthi militia caused a major humanitarian disaster in Yemen, killing more than 8,000 people, including children and women, since the beginning of the war in September 2014, reports Xinhua news agency.

The explosions of the Houthi-laid landmines killed also 61 bomb disposal technicians affiliated with the national pro-government forces, it said.

The pro-government bomb disposal technicians have dismantled and destroyed more than 689,000 mines and explosive devices during the past six years in the war-ravaged country, it added.

Previous reports of humanitarian organisations suggested that Yemen has become one of the largest landmine battlefields in the world since the World War II.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern Yemeni provinces and forced the internationally-recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government.