“They are using the cease-fire as an excuse although they were the first to break it”, a government delegate said.
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The advancing force has reached just a few kilometres (miles) away from the Red Sea port of Midi, which has been under rebel control since 2010, military sources said.
The second Yemeni Qaher1 ballistic missile targeted a gathering of Saudi forces in al-Tawal border crossing, which links Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah to Saudi’s southwestern province of Jizan.
But the rebels still hold the capital, and attempts by loyalists to retake the strategic province of Taez have so far failed.
United Nations special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is mediating the talks, had on Friday already voiced alarm at the widespread ceasefire violations.
The pro-government resistance fighters seized two positions from the Houthis in the district, the sources said, pointing out that they are now heading toward the capital city.
They say Saturday that the clashes between rebel-allied units and pro-government Yemeni forces killed more than 40 rebels and 35 government troops, with 50 wounded on the rebel side and dozens wounded on the government side.
Riyadh said that one missile fired Friday was intercepted by the kingdom’s air defences, but said the other hit an area of desert east of the Saudi city of Najran.
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.
The UN said issues on the agenda at the talks in Switzerland over the coming days would include developing a plan for a sustainable ceasefire and the release of prisoners.
Yemen, which was swept by mass Arab Spring-inspired protests in 2011, was this year plunged into war after the Houthis overthrew the Sanaa government, prompting Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in March to launch a wide-scale bombing campaign.
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On Thursday, the Houthis agreed to permit the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries into the besieged city of Taiz and to exchange prisoners, including the government’s Defense Minister Mahmoud al-Sabahi – concessions they were reluctant to make.
