Sana'a, Yemen - At least 15 insurgents and civilians were killed in Yemen Wednesday when the army bombarded a town controlled by Shiite rebels in north-western Saada province, rebels and residents said.

Fighter jets struck the strongholds of the Houthi rebel group in Haidan several times as part of a major onslaught launched by the army late Tuesday, residents said.

Scores of people were injured.

The rebels said in a statement received by the German Press Agency dpa that most of the 15 killed in an early morning aerial attack on a marketplace in Haiden were civilians.

Government officials refused to comment on fatalities.

The army began aerial, artillery and missile strikes on the strategic heights of Matra and Dhahian, the two main strongholds of the rebels on the border with Saudi Arabia.

The country's Supreme Security Committee said in a statement that the assault was "the last option after the rebels rejected the call of peace made by the government."

The committee, that groups ministers of interior and defence as well as the top army commanders, said the government ordered the army to launch the attack "to protect the citizens in line with its constitutional responsibility."

It vowed to "strike them (the rebels) with an iron fist until they give themselves up to justice."

Tensions have been rising in recent months between the Houthis, and the army in Saada since last July when President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the conflict over.

Five waves of fierce fighting between the rebels and the military have left hundreds of soldiers and insurgents dead since 2004.

Authorities have accused the rebels of trying to reinstall the rule of imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

The Houthis belong to the Zaidi sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. (dpa)