Sana’a (dpa) – At least 12 pro-government Yemeni fighters were killed and about 50 others injured Monday in an airstrike in Lahj in southern Yemen, despite a five-day truce announced earlier by the Saudi-led alliance, local officials said.
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Two Emirati officers have been killed in battle in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition’s latest offensive, known as the “Golden Arrow”, started on July 16.
The Huthis and allied renegade forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh advanced on Aden after Hadi took refuge in the city following his escape from house arrest in Sanaa in February.
The ceasefire came following a request by Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, in order to allow humanitarian aid to reach Yemenis caught up in the conflict.
Four months of air raids and war have killed more than 3,500 people.
Several ships have docked in Aden since Tuesday carrying thousands of tonnes of aid supplies sent by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Gulf nations but distributing the aid, particularly outside the city, presents a major challenge.
So far, the government forces with support from the coalition has retaken the southern port city of Aden. Aden has suffered especially, with severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.
In Riyadh, Hadi yesterday received the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
“These were initial and immediate indications of the failure of the ceasefire”, the source said, but added that the Yemeni government considers the humanitarian truce ongoing despite the breach.
Houthi officials have said their forces “will only abide by the Saudi-announced ceasefire if Saudi Arabia does”, said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the Houthi-declared acting president of Yemen.
The strikes occurred near the strategic military base of al-Anad, which is held by Houthis, and which was also hit by coalition jets on Monday. Details have not been straightaway available.
Residents said forces of the so-called Southern Resistance, a secessionist movement allied with the coalition, had taken and Sabr, a northern district of Aden. However, Houthi spokesperson Hamad Al-Bukhaiti denied reports that Abdul-Malik has a Twitter account or that he posted the message.
The unilateral declaration will deepen the Houthis’ mistrust of the Saudis, according to Hussein al-Bokhaiti, a Sana’a-based pro-Houthi activist with close ties to the movement’s leadership. Reuters could not independently verify the information.
But the truce was cast into doubt when Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al Houthi was reported to have rejected it, arguing it would benefit only Islamic State and al Qaeda.
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