SANAA - A court controlled by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Monday sentenced 16 men to death for allegedly spying for Saudi Arabia, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.

The ruling was the latest in a series of closed-door trials of political opponents held by the Houthis

The television did not identify the defendants, but said that they are Yemenis and the court convicted them for espionage that led to the killing of top Houthi leader Saleh al-Sammad in April 2018 by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Hodeidah.

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There was no comment yet from the coalition-backed Yemeni government.

The ruling was the latest in a series of closed-door trials of political opponents held by the Houthis.

Yemen has been mired in civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

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

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over 3 million and pushed more than 20 million to the brink of famine.