Sanaa air raids resume as Yemen truce expires-residents

SANAA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked targets in Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, hours after a three-day truce in Yemen's war expired, residents in the capital said.

The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of heavy fighting between the Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Each side accused the other of repeatedly violating the truce and U.N. attempts to extend it before it lapsed appeared to have failed.

Air strikes were reported over some military sites in Sanaa in the Hafa camp to the east and in the Nahdein area in the South. Radar positions were also targeted in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida, residents reported.

The strikes happened hours before the arrival in Sanaa of U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is expected to discuss options for a political solution with Houthi representatives.

The United Nations and diplomats had hoped a pause in the conflict would pave the way for talks to end a 19-month-old war which has killed at least 10,000 people in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country. </s> The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of heavy fighting between the Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked targets in Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, hours after a three-day truce in Yemen's war expired, residents in the capital said.

The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of heavy fighting between the Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Each side accused the other of repeatedly violating the truce and U.N. attempts to extend it before it lapsed appeared to have failed.

Air strikes were reported over some military sites in Sanaa in the Hafa camp to the east and in the Nahdein area in the South. Radar positions were also targeted in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida, residents reported.

The strikes happened hours before the arrival in Sanaa of U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is expected to discuss options for a political solution with Houthi representatives.

The United Nations and diplomats had hoped a pause in the conflict would pave the way for talks to end a 19-month-old war which has killed at least 10,000 people in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

The coalition has been fighting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen since March 2015 to try to restore to power the internationally backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who went into exile. </s> SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition launched a series of airstrikes around the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday, just hours after a 72-hour cease-fire expired, according to security officials.

They said the pre-dawn airstrikes targeted military facilities belonging to the Shiite Houthi rebels fighting the internationally recognized government. They had no word on casualties or damage.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The airstrikes followed a call by U.N. special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on the warring parties to extend the temporary cease-fire for at least another renewable 72 hours.

The previous 72-hour truce expired at 11:59 p.m. local time Saturday. Ahmed said the cease-fire had largely held during the truce, “despite reported violations from both sides in several areas,” and that it had enabled U.N. personnel to deliver food and humanitarian supplies to several previously inaccessible areas.

“We would like to build on this and we aim for a wider outreach in the next few days,” Ahmed said. There was no immediate word on whether the combatants would consider another cease-fire.

The war in Yemen began in 2014 when Shiite rebels known as Houthis based in the north seized the capital, Sanaa, and later swept across much of the poor Arabian Peninsula country.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies launched a campaign of airstrikes against the rebels. </s> SANAA/DUBAI/GENEVA (Reuters) - A Saudi-led Arab military coalition said on Friday it would investigate an air strike that killed dozens of children in Yemen, an apparent shift of stance on an attack Riyadh has portrayed as a legitimate action against its Houthi foes.

At least 40 children were killed in Thursday's strike on a bus in northern Yemen, the armed Houthi group which controls Yemen's capital said. That raised the toll of children killed in the raid from 29.

The strike by the Western-backed alliance of Arab countries outraged human rights groups and was strongly condemned by U.N. officials. Henrietta Fore, executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF, said the "horrific" attack marked "a low point in (Yemen’s) brutal war".

People in Saada started to dig graves in preparation for funerals to be held on Saturday.

"God may give us patience," said Hussein Hussein Tayeb, who lost three sons on the bus, on a trip with other pupils to visit a mosque and tombs.

"I was one of the first to arrive on the scene, seeking to rescue the wounded; I lifted a body and I found that it was Ahmed's face. I hugged him, he was my son."

Ahmed was 11. His brothers Yusef and Ali were 14 and 9.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called for an independent investigation of the raid which hit the bus as it drove through a market in Dahyan, a town in the Houthis' home province of Saada.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday called for a "credible and transparent" investigation after receiving a closed-door briefing on the strike by a senior U.N. official.

A Reuters TV crew saw boys injured in the strike lying on beds in the Dahyan hospital, many with their heads wrapped. The face of one was covered in lacerations.

The Arab states carried out new air strikes on Friday, killing a girl and injuring several other people whose home was targeted in Marib province, east of the capital Sanaa, the Houthis' al-Masirah TV said.

Announcing the investigation into the strike on the bus, the Saudi Press Agency quoted an alliance official as saying: "The coalition is firmly committed to investigating all claims regarding mistakes or violations of international law, to sanction those who caused these incidents and to provide assistance to the victims."

The Saudi-led Arab alliance, whose members receive Western political support and buy billions of dollars a year in arms from the United States, Britain and France, has been fighting for three years to drive out the Houthis, Iran-aligned fighters who pushed a Saudi-backed government out of the capital in 2014.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arabian peninsula, and the United Nations says the war has created the world's most urgent humanitarian disaster, with millions of people totally dependent on aid and at risk of famine if supply lines are cut.

The Arab states initially said the air strikes on the bus were "legitimate military action" against missile launchers, carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Houthi-run al-Masirah TV cited the group's health minister Taha Mutawakil as saying that the estimated number of casualties stood at 51 killed including 40 children, and at least 79 people wounded, of whom 56 were children.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported the same toll on Friday, citing authorities in Saada. It had said on its Twitter account on Thursday that its medical team at the ICRC-supported hospital in Saada had received the bodies of 29 children, all under 15 years old. The hospital also received 48 wounded people, among them 30 children.

Masirah TV said on Friday the Houthis had fired a number of ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia, targeting Jizan and Aseer provinces which lie at the border. Saudi Arabia intercepted two missiles fired at Jizan, Al-Arabiya TV reported.

The head of the Houthis' supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, hailed Friday's call by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for an independent investigation into the air strike.

In Paris, the French foreign ministry said France condemned the strike and backed a U.N. call to bring all parties in the war together for talks in Geneva on Sept. 6.

The Houthis have however barred without explanation the head of the U.N.'s human rights office in Yemen from returning to the country, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

Elobaid Elobaid, a Canadian citizen, had been based in Yemen since October 2016, leading 17 staff in Sanaa and 13 monitors in 11 of Yemen's governorates. His visa expired in June but was not renewed.

The U.N. human rights office has frequently accused all sides of violating international law and committing war crimes.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. </s> CAIRO (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen said Friday it bombed an air base adjacent to the Sanaa international airport allegedly being used by the rebels to launch drone and…

CAIRO (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen said Friday it bombed an air base adjacent to the Sanaa international airport allegedly being used by the rebels to launch drone and ballistic missile attacks.

Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the coalition, said in TV comments that no flights or international aid efforts at the airport were affected by the airstrikes targeting the al-Dulaimi Air Base in Sanaa. He did not elaborate.

Yemen’s rebel-run al-Masirah TV said more than 30 airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition targeted the air base and surrounding areas in the rebel-held capital.

Al-Malki said Saudi air defense forces on Friday shot down a missile launched by Yemeni rebels at the southern Saudi border city of Najran. The rocket was fired from the rebels’ stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen, he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, fighting in the Hodeida province has intensified in the past days, security officials said.

They said forces backed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition have been trying to retake the port city of Hodeida, the main entry point for food in a country teetering on the brink of famine.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The airstrikes in Sanaa came days after a U.S. call for an urgent halt to the Saudi-Iran proxy war in Yemen and the start of negotiations in November toward a political settlement of the conflict. The war has pushed millions to the brink of starvation in the Arab world’s poorest country.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday urged a cease-fire, specifically citing missile and drone strikes into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. He also said airstrikes by the Arab coalition, backed by the U.S., “must cease in all populated areas in Yemen.”

“The time is now for a cessation of hostilities,” Pompeo said. His plea came shortly after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis spoke in unusual detail about diplomacy to end the crisis.

“Yemen has more problems than any people deserve to carry,” Mattis said.

The U.S. call comes nearly a month after the slaying of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi Consulate in Turkey causing international outrage against the Saudis. The killing prompted critics to urge an end to American arms sales to the kingdom and a reappraisal of U.S. military support for the Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been bombing Iranian-supported Houthi rebels, sometimes at the expense of killing civilians.

In March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition unleased a full-scale military campaign against Iran-allied Houthi rebels who had captured most of Yemen including the capital, Sanaa, a few months earlier. The rebels pushed the internationally recognized government out of the country.

An estimated 10,000 people have been killed. The war has also left around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relying on aid, and more than 8 million at risk of starvation.

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is one of the worst in the world, with three quarters of the population requiring some form of life-saving assistance and protection, according to the United Nations Population Fund. The agency warned Thursday that the looming famine in war-torn Yemen could put 2 million mothers at risk of death.

UNFPA said lack of food, displacement, poor nutrition, disease outbreaks and eroding health care have dramatically affected the health and well-being of 1.1 million malnourished women who are pregnant or are breast-feeding their newborns.

The U.N. has made no progress in attempts to get the warring sides to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Associated Press writer Ahmed al-Haj contributed in this report from Sanaa.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> ADEN: A 72-hour ceasefire in Yemen will go into effect starting Thursday, the United Nations announced on Monday.

A cessation of hostilities that first went into effect in April “will re-enter into force at 23:59 Yemen time (2059 GMT) on 19 October 2016, for an initial period of 72 hours, subject to renewal,” the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said in a statement.

The announcement comes after Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi agreed to the ceasefire in a statement earlier on Monday, a day after international calls for a truce.

Ahmed on Sunday said he had been in contact with the Huthi militia’s lead negotiator and Hadi’s government.

The United States, Britain and the UN peace envoy to Yemen on Sunday urged the warring parties in the country’s civil war to declare a ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia’s impoverished neighbor has been rocked by a deadly war since pro-Iran rebels overran the capital Sanaa in September 2014.

However, the conflict escalated after an Arab coalition, led by Riyadh, launched a bombing campaign against the Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies in March 2015.

The conflict in Yemen has killed almost 6,900 people, wounded more than 35,000 and displaced at least three million since March last year, according to the United Nations.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry met in London with the UN envoy and his opposite numbers from Britain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the Yemen conflict.

“This is the time to implement a ceasefire unconditionally and then move to the negotiating table,” US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters after the talks.

Previous attempts to enforce a ceasefire in the country have so far failed with the war intensifying after a round of peace talks in Kuwait ended in August without achieving a breakthrough.

The Saudi-led coalition has stepped up its air raids following the breakdown of talks and cross-border attacks from Yemen have also intensified.

The previous ceasefire, announced in conjunction with the start of the Kuwait talks, was hardly observed on ground, with both sides trading blame for violating the truce.

Earlier this month, the UN envoy had said that a 72-hour ceasefire was expected soon adding that he was hoping to draft a new peace plan for Yemen.

The coalition has carried out hundreds of air strikes and provided ground troops to support Hadi’s forces.

But it has failed to dislodge the Huthi rebels, who are allied with forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, from key areas including the capital Sanaa.

The rebels still control large parts of the north, their historic stronghold areas, and other regions of western and central Yemen.

Taez, the country’s third city, is almost completely surrounded by the Huthis and their allies and loyalist forces have for months tried to break the rebel grip on the southwestern city.

Government forces have recaptured the south and east but failed to make any significant advances. AFP </s> Each side accused the other of repeatedly violating the three-day truce and U.N. attempts to extend it before it lapsed appeared to have failed.

Ground fighting raged largely unabated despite the ceasefire, but air attacks on the capital, Sanaa, stopped and there were fewer Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, residents and local officials said.

The U.N. and diplomats had hoped a pause in the conflict would pave the way for talks to end a 19-month-old war which has killed at least 10,000 people in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, and would allow badly needed aid to be delivered.

A Saudi-led coalition backing the exiled government accused the Houthis of violating the ceasefire almost 1,000 times in the last 24 hours by launching mortar and armed attacks along Yemen's border with the kingdom and in several Yemeni provinces.

General Ahmed al-Asseri, commander of the Saudi 4th Brigade on the border in the Saudi province of Najran, told Reuters his forces were repelling a sustained Houthi ground attack.

"The violation of the truce was not from our side. It was from the other side. We are continuing to thwart them," Asseri said, speaking at a military outpost in the arid mountains separating the two countries.

"In the last 48 hours there was an enormous push by the enemy against our territory ... large numbers of fighters were moving towards the border."

Asseri said coalition forces did conduct an air strike inside Yemen against missiles and launchers that threatened Saudi civilians.

"The presence of missiles next to the border, we must deal with it with decisiveness. We must."

Houthi-run channel al-Masira said its forces had attacked Saudi positions in Najran on Friday and launched rockets into the neighboring Saudi province of Jizan.

The network said Houthi fighters had repelled government advances backed up by Saudi-led air strikes toward the capital Sanaa from several directions.

Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the exiled vice president and a powerful military leader, said in a statement that U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had asked for the truce to be extended for another 72 hours on Friday.

Government sources told Reuters that foreign diplomats had lobbied both sides to prolong the ceasefire, but neither the government nor the Houthis appeared to have complied.

Along the border, trust was in short supply.

"By God, there is a truce, but it doesn't work with these people," said Hussein al-Abdali, 63, whose home in Jizan - in the shadow of Yemen's mountains - was damaged by a Houthi rocket on Thursday.

"They're devils. I swear, they can only be stopped by fire and steel." (Writing by Noah Browning; editing by Andrew Roche) </s> The Iran-allied Houthis, who are battling the internationally recognized government of Yemen's President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, often fire mortars into southern Saudi regions and test Saudi defenses with guerrilla-style incursions.

The attack came hours before the Saudi-led coalition that is supporting Hadi in the war, announced a ceasefire in a bid to end a conflict that has displaced millions of people and caused a humanitarian disaster.

The 48-hour truce is due to start at noon (0900 GMT) on Saturday.

The Houthis were not immediately available to comment on the attack. A news agency controlled by the group said Saudi jets early on Saturday bombed an area of farmland in Yemen's southern Shabwa province.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies intervened in Yemen's war in March 2015 to support Hadi's government. Several dozen Saudi soldiers have been killed in clashes along the long, rugged border with Yemen. </s> Saudi-led coalition air strike kills at least 6 in Yemen - residents

SANAA, Sept 21 (Reuters) - At least 6 civilians were killed on Wednesday when a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a house in western Yemen, residents and medics said.

Fighter jets of an Arab alliance launched missiles on Wednesday at a presidential palace in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah occupied by leaders of the Iran-allied Houthi militia, a resident told Reuters.

A raid hit a house adjacent to the palace killing six civilians and wounding 12 according to a medic who said rescue workers were searching for victims among the rubble.

It was not immediately clear if any Houthi leaders had been killed or injured in the attack.

"The scene was awful. Body parts were mixed up with the remains of the house and blood filled the place," said a resident who declined to have his name published out of fear for his safety.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed early last year to fight the Houthis after they took over the capital Sanaa, made gains in other provinces and forced Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government to flee into exile.

U.N.-sponsored talks to try to end the fighting that has killed more than 10,000 people collapsed in failure last month and the Houthi movement and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh resumed shelling into neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Wednesday's attacks were the latest in a series of strikes that have hit schools, hospitals, markets and private homes.

A coalition spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. Saudi officials say aircraft of the Arab alliance only target military facilities in Yemen.

Nearly half of Yemen's 22 provinces are on the verge of famine, according to the U.N. World Food Programme, as a result of the war that has drawn in regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Tom Finn; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Saudi Arabian-led air raids on the Yemeni capital Sana'a resume after a truce ends.