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Yemen crisis: Shelling reported despite truce

The channel had no further details on the reported incident in the al-Tawal region on the border between the two countries.

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Pro-Hadi Popular Resistance militiamen had attacked the Huthis overnight Saturday on the northern outskirts of Aden, forcing the rebels out of the Basateen and Jawala areas.

There was no immediate comment by the Saudi-led coalition.

The Saba news service, which is loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said Houthi militias had shelled several residential communities in the southern town of Dalea, about 170 km north of Aden.

Houthis hold up their weapons as they chant slogans during a rally against Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, July 24, 2015. Four months of air raids and war have killed more than 3,500 people.

The raids targeted positions in Lahj province following Houthi attacks in the southern area where fighting between the Saudi-supported loyalists and the group have recently intensified, the sources said.

SAUDI ARABIA announced the start of a five-day “humanitarian pause” in its brutal bombardment of Yemen yesterday.

Ali Abdullah Saleh – Military units loyal to the former president – forced to hand over power in 2011 after mass protests – are fighting alongside the Houthis.

The Arab coalition on Saturday announced a ceasefire to take effect at 11.59 p.m. (2059 GMT) on Sunday evening for five days to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

In a heavily bombed district of Sanaa, a nine-year-old girl, wearing a pink dress and holding her father’s hand, said: “Today I walked out to the cornershop to buy chocolate without fear…”

Jordan plays an important military role in the US and Saudi wars against the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria and against the Houthis in Yemen.

Witnesses who fled Sabr on Monday morning said that corpses of fighters lay in the street next to destroyed military vehicles.

A six-day UN-proposed truce which was due to begin just before midnight on July 10 also failed as clashes and coalition air strikes persisted. The statement, carried on Saudi state media, said the coalition will cease military operations, but that it will respond should Houthi rebels or their allies conduct any military actions or movements.

But the Houthis – who control much of the north of the country and the capital, Sanaa – said they hadn’t been officially informed of the ceasefire.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he urged all the the parties to “agree to and maintain the humanitarian pause for the sake of all the Yemeni people” and asked them to act in good faith throughout the pause.

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The group could therefore not give a “negative or positive” answer about the truce, he said.

Airstrikes kill 120 in Yemen hours before Saudi-led coalition announces truce