On Friday, Saudi fighter jets also violated the ceasefire and hit a residential neighborhood in the al-Kitaf district of Sa’ada some 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Sana’a, leaving 23 people dead.
Advertisement
Peace talks between Yemen’s warring parties have been indefinitely halted after members of the Houthi rebel delegation suspended all negotiations in protest of ceasefire violations committed by forces loyal to embattled President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, the Associated Press reported.
The government delegation waited all day at a hotel in the small northwestern town of Magglingen for their rebel counterparts in the UN-brokered talks that began Tuesday, to no avail, a government delegation source told AFP.
But after the apparent breakthrough on the committee, Saturday’s round of talks did not yield more results.
Clashes have been frequent along Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, where rebel strikes have killed more than 80 people since the coalition campaign against the Houthis and their allies began in March.
They say the Yemeni government forces advanced across the border from Saudi territory after training there for months. We continue to work with both sides.
The Houthis had earlier agreed to permit humanitarian aid deliveries into the besieged city of Taiz as well as the cities of Saada and also Hajjah, the capital of the province where the fresh fighting was taking place.
The other missile struck an area of desert east of the Saudi city of Najran, the coalition said in a statement carried by the kingdom’s SPA state news agency, without reporting any casualties.
He said dozens of renegade troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh and allied with the Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels had been killed.
Military sources said coalition-backed pro-Hadi forces reinforced Hazm Saturday, including with tanks and other armoured vehicles.
In addition, the Saudi-led coalition said two ballistic missiles were fired from Yemen toward Saudi Arabia one of which was intercepted in the province of Marib.
On Thursday, pro-government forces and rebels completed an exchange of hundreds of prisoners in the southern province of Lahj.
But the United Nations, which is mediating the talks, cast doubts on the alleged suspension.
Sources said the two delegations agreed on the fifth day of talks to have the ceasefire violation cases monitored by the UN-proposed committee, which, according to reports, will be headed by a Lebanese army general.
Advertisement
More than 5,800 people have been killed – about half of them civilians – and over 27,000 wounded in Yemen since then, according to the UN.
