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Aden [Yemen], May 7: A plane carrying the first batch of freed prisoners of the Houthi group arrived on Friday in Yemeni southern port city of Aden as part of the two-month truce brokered by the United Nations, a government official told Xinhua.
"The plane of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) carrying 40 Houthi prisoners landed at Aden International Airport and two more flights will arrive later to transfer at least 108 prisoners freed by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition," the local government source said on condition of anonymity.
The prisoners will be soon transferred by the ICRC to the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa, the source added, without revealing the exact date.
On Friday, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen announced releasing a group of Houthi prisoners in batches as part of the UN-brokered agreement and as an effort to end the years-long military conflict.
In late March, Yemen's Houthi militia announced that they were ready to swap 823 prisoners of the pro-government Yemeni forces, including 16 Saudis and three Sudanese, for 1,400 Houthi militants.
Around 15,000 prisoners of war and political prisoners were reportedly held in the Yemeni government and Houthi jails.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in the Yemeni civil war in an attempt to reinstate the Hadi government.
Source: Xinhua