Saudi-led alliance resumes air strikes on Yemen
A Saudi Arabian-led coalition resumed air strikes against Yemen's Houthi militia in Aden overnight, hours after the expiry of a truce meant to facilitate badly needed humanitarian aid, a Reuters eyewitness said.
The witness said explosions could be heard near the southern city's airport and the districts of Khor Maksar and Crater shortly the five-day ceasefire expired on May 17 at 4 pm EDT. No further details were immediately available.
Late on May 17 a spokesman for the army, much of which is allied to the Houthis, welcomed a request by the UN envoy to Yemen to extend the truce to allow more aid to be delivered to the war-damaged Arabian Peninsula country.
Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed made his appeal at the opening of a conference of Yemeni parties that convened in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss ways of ending Yemen's political turmoil.
Since Tuesday Saudi-led forces and Yemen's Houthi militias had largely observed a ceasefire meant to allow delivery of food, fuel and medical supplies to millions of Yemenis caught in the conflict since the alliance began air strikes on March 26.
Sporadic clashes had continued, however, with at least 15 killed overnight May 16-17 in the cities of Taiz and Dhalea, residents said.
Relief groups say that the five days were hardly enough to allow sufficient supplies to reach the country of 25 million.
Impoverished and strife-torn even before the war, Yemen is now mired in a humanitarian catastrophe, as 300,000 people have been displaced by the conflict and 12 million are short of food.