Saudi-led coalition struck Yemen rebels after UN truce began

SANAA: Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition hit Yemen rebel positions in the central city of Taez early on Saturday, shortly after a United Nations humanitarian truce came into effect, witnesses said.

One Saudi official described the measure as “useless”, questioning whether the Iran-backed rebel fighters would stick to it.

The coalition said it “did not yet receive any request from the legitimate Yemeni government asking for a truce or cessation of military operations”.

Houthi leader Abdelmalik al-Houthi said the truce had to be conditional “on the commitment of the regime and their mercenaries”.

“It is still going to be a challenge to have this call heeded within the next 24 hours because of the entrenched fighting on the ground”, the diplomat told Reuters.

Violence raged overnight in Taez, with witnesses saying that the Houthis had also bombed several districts.

The fighting in Yemen pits The Houthis and troops loyal to ex- President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is now based in Saudi Arabia.

Reports also said that Saudi attacks claimed the lives of two children in the southwestern province of Ta’izz.

“We hope this truce will be the beginning of the end of the Saudi aggression and the end of the violation of United Nations conventions that the war of aggression on Yemen has seen”, a top rebel leader, Mohammed al-Houthi, said in a statement Friday.

If the truce is respected, the World Health Organization and its partners aim to reach more than 2.37 million people.

Aid agencies say a blockade on Yemen has worsened the humanitarian crisis after months of conflict.

The truce is the “final hope” to reach areas in need of aid, the World Food Programme said.

She said that two ships carrying food and fuel were waiting off Aden to dock.

However, aid workers and global groups warn that the country’s civilian population is suffering under growing shortages of food, electricity and medical supplies, with over 80 percent of the people believed to be in need of emergency aid.

Etefa said the WFP managed over the past week to deliver 9,000 tonnes of food to its warehouses in Yemen, adding that the truce is needed to secure its delivery.

A man stands on the rubble of a wedding hall destroyed by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, July 10, 2015.

This is the second ceasefire since the coalition launched its air campaign against the Houthis and their allies in March.

Implementing more thorny political points, the envoy said, would not happen immediately and required more discussion, but the Houthis have released a top pro-Hadi politician in Sanaa and allowed the shipment of 50 aid trucks to the embattled southern city of Aden to buttress the truce.