Sanaa, Aug 22 (IANS): The Yemeni government announced that airstrikes launched by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition killed an Iranian military officer in the country's oil-rich province of Marib.

Haidar Serjan, who worked as an advisor to the Houthis, was killed with nine others on Friday night following airstrikes launched by the coalition during the ongoing fighting in Marib's district of Serwah, Minister of Information Muammar Al-Eryani said in a statement on Saturday.

The Minister urged the international community and the UN to "adopt a firm stand against Iran's interference in the Yemeni affairs."

The Houthis began in February a major offensive on Marib in an attempt to seize control of the oil-rich province, the government's last northern stronghold.

Yemen's civil war flared up in late 2014 when the Houthi rebels seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

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