At least 44 Houthi fighters have been killed near the Yemen-Saudi border in a series of air strikes by the Yemen Army, a senior government official says, Press TV reported.

The Houthi fighters, however, claimed that the Yemeni army has killed civilians and not the fighters during Sunday's attacks.

According to Yemen's deputy interior minister, Mohammed Abdelallah al-Qawsi, 27 of the 44 Houthi fighters had been killed by an air strike on a hideout of fighters in an abandoned hospital in the small town of Razeh.

The fighters, however, said the hospital was still functional and those killed inside were civilians.

"This is another lie by the government, all those who were killed were innocent civilians," said rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam on telephone.

The Yemeni army has been embroiled in a five-year conflict with Houthi fighters in the northern province of Saada that erupted when Shia Houthis took up arms against the central government, complaining of neglect and the widening influence of hard-line Sunni fundamentalists, some of whom consider Shias as heretics.