Fifteen people have been killed in tanks' shelling by the Houthi militia on a village in Yemen's central province of al-Bayda, medics said Friday.

The victims were killed by the Houthi tanks' shelling in the past three days on the village of Khubzah in Kayfah district, they said.

According to the residents living near the village, the attack was launched after the Khubzah villagers refused to pay money to the militia's security checkpoints on the road leading to the village.

However, the Houthi-controlled ministry of interior in the capital Sanaa said in a statement on Thursday late night that "its forces targeted al-Qaida elements in the Khubzah village after they killed a security man and wounded five others in a checkpoint near the village three days ago."

The ministry said that it had arrested several "al-Qaida elements" without providing any detail.

The Yemeni civil war erupted in late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia stormed several northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government out of the capital Sanaa.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 4 million and pushed the country to the brink of starvation.