ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least three Yemeni soldiers were killed on Friday in a mortar attack by fighters of the Shiite Houthi group in the the southern Lahj province, a military official said.

The military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that a number of mortar shells fired by Houthis had landed on government-controlled positions in the suburbs of Lahj province.

Residents said that several mortar shells hit a residential area, some of them exploded, but caused no casualties among the civilians.

The pro-Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the mortar attack as the group frequently carry out attacks targeting the government-controlled areas in the country's southern regions.

The attack came a day after the leader of the Southern Regional Military Command along with high-ranking officials inspected the pro-government forces during a visit to Lahj frontlines with Houthis.

Yemen's internationally-backed government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for about three years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels over control of the country.

The coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to the power.

The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around three million.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported every day.