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Saudi forces and Yemen’s Houthi militia traded heavy artillery fire which destroyed part of the main border crossing between the two countries overnight, residents said Sunday, an escalation of the two-month war. The Haradh border crossing, the largest for people and goods between Saudi Arabia and its impoverished neighbor, was evacuated amid shelling, which razed its departure lounge and passport section, witnesses said, The Daily Star reports, citing news agencies.

Residents of several Yemeni villages in the area left their homes and fled from the frontier, which has turned into a front line between the kingdom and the Iran-backed rebels.

Air raids hit military bases and weapons stores in the capital Sanaa and local officials said a mid-level Houthi commander, Abu Bassam al-Kibsi, was killed in an airstrike in the central province of Raymah.

Local fighters combatting the Houthis in Yemen’s south reported Saudi-led airstrikes on a major air base controlled by the group in Lahej province and say they killed eight Houthi fighters in an ambush in Daleh province Sunday.

Residents in the central city of Taiz said Houthi forces and pro-Hadi fighters fired tank and artillery shells at each other throughout the city overnight, killing five civilians.

The Houthis seized control of a military base on a strategic mountaintop in the center of the city, eyewitnesses said.

In Aden, sporadic clashes rocked the port city killing two civilians and six rebels, after a day of fierce fighting that raged in the north, east and west of the city. Air raids also struck several targets in the evening, including the landing strip at Aden airport, and the city’s northern suburbs, officials said.

Meanwhile, a ship carrying 460 tons of Emirati humanitarian aid, including medical and food supplies, docked in the city.