Houthi missiles, Saudi airstrikes strain ceasefire

The Saudi-led military coalition said missiles fired from Yemen today injured civilians in southern Saudi Arabia, and Houthi fighters said an air strike by the alliance killed three people, straining a civil war ceasefire.

In a statement, the Arab coalition said that rockets were fired by the Iran-aligned Houthi group at Jazan and Najran in Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis said they had launched attacks on Saudi military bases across the border over the past two days and that a coalition airstrike on Thursday killed three civilians in northern Sa’ada province.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab Gulf allies have been fighting in a civil war in Yemen since March 2015 on behalf of the internationally-backed government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi against the Houthi group, which controls the capital Sana’a.

Late last night, a 72-hour truce brokered by the UN began raising hopes of an end to the conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country that has killed thousands of civilians and left many people stricken with disease and starvation.

Last night saw Sana’a pass its first night in three months without airstrikes and the truce was generally holding across Yemen, residents and officials said.

But Yemen’s exiled government said the Houthi militia had violated the truce 43 times and shelled the strategic city of Taiz.

“Taiz suffered heavy shelling…and the siege of it by the Houthis has continued,” Yemeni General Samir Haj was quoted as saying by the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency.

The Arab coalition said in a statement that it remained committed to the truce despite “ongoing violations”.

The truce has the possibility for extension if it holds, opening the way for aid supplies to isolated regions where hunger and diseases including cholera have spread.

Coalition aircraft had bombed Sana’a every night since 7 August, starting after peace talks with the Houthis and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh broke down. But last night Sana’a fell quiet, residents said.

“We slept without explosions,” said Bassam, a worker at a grocery store in Sana’a. “We hope this war ends soon, because people are tired. We want to live, not to die.”

Several previous ceasefires have failed to pave the way for an end to the conflict, although they have significantly slowed fighting in a war that has killed at least 10,000 people. Relief agencies hope to use the truce to reach parts of Yemen that have been cut off by months of fighting and are in dire need of humanitarian aid.