Monday, May 18, 2015

Arab coalition resumes Yemen air strikes as truce ends

Arab coalition nations have resumed air strikes against Houthi fighters in Yemen as a UN envoy called for an extension of a five-day humanitarian ceasefire that expired late Sunday.

The coalition targeted Houthi rebel positions in Al-Sawlaban and Al-Arish in Aden province, Saudi military officials said early on Monday.


Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-backed channel, reported that Saudi troops were also shelling Al-Manzala district in Al-Dalih near the Yemen-Saudi border, in addition to Al-Ghawr mountain.

"I call on all parties to renew their commitment to this truce for five more days at least," UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said earlier in Riyadh. "This humanitarian truce should turn into a permanent ceasefire."

His appeal followed clashes between rebels and pro-government forces across south Yemen on Saturday despite the truce, which has largely held since starting on Tuesday at 2000 GMT.

The official Saudi Press Agency, meanwhile, reported that the UN envoy met Saudi chief of staff Lieutenant General Abdulrahman bin Saleh al-Bunyan and discussed "humanitarian aid efforts" in Yemen.

Aid groups have called for a lasting truce in the impoverished country, where a Saudi-led regional coalition has waged an air war Houthis and their allies since late March.

Yemeni political parties began talks on Sunday in the Saudi capital aimed at finding a solution to the crisis. But the Houthis stayed away from the meeting of some 400 delegates including President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has taken refuge in Riyadh.

Hadi repeated accusations that the rebels had staged a "coup".

"We are trying to regain our nation" from militias backed by "external" forces, he said in a reference to Iran, which has denied arming the rebels.

An Iranian aid ship bound for Yemen in defiance of US warnings has entered the Gulf of Aden and is expected to dock on Thursday, media in Tehran reported.

Clashes in Aden

Its mission has been overshadowed by US calls for it to head to a UN emergency relief hub in Djibouti instead of the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

Clashes raged overnight Saturday in the central city of Taiz between Houthis - supported by troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh - and pro-Hadi forces.

The rebels, who seized Sanaa in September and have since swept across many other regions, bombed a village south of Taiz, killing 14 civilians, a local official said.

Sporadic clashes also continued in Aden, the scene of fierce fighting since rebels advanced on the southern port in late March after Hadi took refuge there.

Aden health chief Al-Khader Laswar said four people were killed in clashes Sunday and 39 were wounded, among them two children and four women.

Laswar has said that 517 civilians and pro-Hadi fighters have been killed there in the past 50 days. The toll includes 76 women and children, he said.

Quoted by the government news agency Sabanew.net, Laswar said he could not provide a toll for the rebels.

He added that 3,461 people were wounded, and said most Aden hospitals were currently out of service as "most" medics have fled.

The United Nations has expressed deep concern about the civilian death toll from the bombing as well as the humanitarian impact of an air and sea blockade imposed by the coalition.

It says more than 1,600 people have died in the conflict since late March.
 Source: Al Jazeera And AFP
18/5/15
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2 comments:

  1. Kerry: Houthi actions make ceasefire ‘difficult’...

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday Washington supported extending a "humanitarian pause" in the fighting in Yemen, but that maneuvers by Houthi militias made that difficult.

    A Saudi-led coalition resumed air strikes against the Houthi in Aden overnight, hours after the expiry of a truce meant to facilitate badly needed humanitarian aid, a Reuters witness said.

    Explosions could be heard near the southern city's airport and the districts of Khor Maksar and Crater shortly after the five-day ceasefire expired on Sunday.

    "We know that the Houthis were engaged in moving some missile-launching capacity to the border and under the rules of engagement, it was always understood that if there were proactive moves by one side or another, then that would be in violation of the ceasefire agreement," Kerry told reporters in the South Korean capital.

    "Saudi Arabia, under the rules of engagement, took action. We continue to support the idea of extending the humanitarian pause, but I think under the circumstances at the moment that would be difficult."......alarabiya.net
    18/5/15

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yemen crisis could open jihadist paths, U.N. warns...

    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned in a new report that the crisis in Yemen could open a corridor for jihadist movements through Somalia, which is located just across the Gulf of Aden.

    Ban said in a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Monday that security in Somalia and the region is threatened by the Islamist militant group al-Shabab. He pointed to continuing al-Shabab attacks in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and the country' central and southern regions as well as increased activities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland and the massacre of 147 students at Garissa University College in neighboring Kenya in April.....http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/19/UN-Yemen-crisis-could-open-jihadist-paths.html
    19/5/15

    ReplyDelete

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