DUBAI (AFP) - A bomb attack in a market killed seven Yemeni civilians, including a photographer for a UAE television channel, in the government-controlled town of Mokha, medics and military sources said on Tuesday (Jan 29).

At least 20 people were wounded in the overnight blast in the Red Sea town, where pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels are based.

The improvised explosive device was planted on a motorcycle parked in the middle of the market, an official in the pro-government forces told AFP.

Seven people were killed, the official and a hospital source said.

A photographer for Abu Dhabi TV, Mr Ziad al-Sharabi, was among the dead, the official Saba news agency quoted Information Minister Moammer al-Eryani as saying.

A correspondent for the same network, Mr Faisal Al-Zabhani, was among the wounded, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Saba blamed it on the Iran-aligned Houthis.

The city of Mokha has enjoyed relative calm since coalition-backed government forces seized it from the rebels in July 2017.

Yemen's war escalated in March 2015, when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia and the coalition intervened.

Since then, the conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people and unleashed the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

UN aid officials say 80 per cent of the population - 24 million people - are in need of aid and nearly 10 million are just one step away from famine.