Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, pro-Hadi forces have since managed to reclaim large swathes of the country’s south – including provisional capital Aden – but have failed to retake Sanaa and other strategic areas.
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At least 10 children were killed and 21 injured in northern Yemen on Saturday, aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said, as the country’s parliament convened for the first time in nearly two years.
The children, according to local reports, were taking exams inside their classrooms. Gruesome images of what appeared to be the bodies of the children have emerged on social media sites.
The meeting was held in the capital Sanaa despite a warning from Hadi, who is staying in Saudi Arabia.
Coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri said the strikes hit a Huthi training camp, killing militia fighters including a leader identified as Yehya Munassar Abu Rabua.
Fighting started again last week and more than a dozen people were killed when airstrikes hit a food facility.
The coalition has been accused of bombing indiscriminately and the United Nations says it has around killed 2,000 civilians with its airstrikes.
The internationally recognized government-in-exile, led by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, considers that body illegitimate.
The conflict in Yemen can not come to an end through local peace talks, but round table discussions should be held between the Middle East powers in particular Saudi Arabia and Iran, he noted.
It recognises former president Ali Abdullah Saleh as Yemen’s legitimate leader.
The UN says more than 6,400 people, majority civilians, have been killed in Yemen since the airstrikes began.
Tens of thousands of children, in particular, have felt the brunt of the conflict in myriad ways, including chronic malnutrition and recruitment as soldiers.
Intensified rebel shelling last week also killed two civilians on the Saudi side of the border.
The country has become a proxy battleground between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Saturday that the victims were aged between eight and 15 and attended a school in Haydan, a region in Yemen’s northwestern Saada province.
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United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said he took Saudi Arabia off the list after Saudi Arabia threatened to cut off funding to United Nations aid programs.
