Coalition resumes air strikes after Yemen truce expires

The Houthi rebels are reportedly moving missiles towards the border with Saudi Arabia.

Women walk at the site of an air strike that hit a residential area last month near Sanaa airport on May 18. Reuters

RIYADH // Saudi Arabia-led forces resumed air strikes in Yemen after a five-day humanitarian ceasefire ended late on Sunday, blaming the Iranian-backed rebels for failure to renew the truce.

“They did not respect the humanitarian pause. That’s why we do what is necessary to be done,” coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Al Assiri said.

“These militia did not stop their fighting. They continued to attack borders, to attack cities in Yemen.”

The pause was proposed by Saudi Arabia to allow urgently needed humanitarian aid into Yemen.

The Saudi Arabian cabinet chaired by King Salman on Monday denounced the Houthi violations of the ceasefire.

“The Houthi activities have been thwarting the truce and impeding the relief efforts for the people of Yemen,” the cabinet said.

Gen Al Assiri accused the Houthis of moving missiles with a range of about 70 kilometres towards the border with Saudi Arabia, said there was shelling “every day” of the Saudi Arabian boundary zone, and the rebels “hijacked” food and fuel aid in Yemen.

The United Nations and aid groups had appealed for an extension to allow the delivery of more relief to civilians affected by the conflict.

The Yemeni foreign minister Riad Yassin Abdullah said the coalition was not considering a new ceasefire but would not target air and seaports needed for aid shipments.

Saudi Arabia-led forces conducted three air strikes on Saada province, the rebels’ northern stronghold, according to Houthi media. Al Arabiya television channel reported heavy shelling by Saudi Arabian forces on Houthi outposts across the border after the fighters fired mortars at the army in southern Najran province.

Earlier in the day, residents said warplanes struck the Houthi-held presidential palace in the southern port of Aden as well as groups of militiamen on the western and eastern approaches to the city and the international airport where Houthis and local fighters have been clashing.

In the capital Sanaa, residents said Houthi anti-aircraft guns opened fire on coalition jets on Monday morning but there were no air strikes there.

There was no word on casualties in any of the incidents.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been conducting an offensive against the Houthis and units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh for more than six weeks, saying the rebels were being backed by Iran in an effort to expand its influence in the region.

The campaign has yet to reverse the Houthis’ advance into Aden and along battlefronts across Yemen’s south.

A five-day truce that started on Tuesday night halted the air strikes and allowed humanitarian aid into the blockaded country.

The US secretary of state John Kerry said on Monday that Washington supported extending the truce, but that manoeuvres by the Houthis made that difficult.

“We know that the Houthis were engaged in moving some missile-launching capacity to the border [with Saudi Arabia] 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 arrangement,” he said.

Iran’s foreign minister on Monday called on the United Nations to take on a more active role in Yemen, including establishing a presence on the ground to ensure that humanitarian aid could be distributed.

“We believe the UN needs to create a protected zone in Yemen to receive humanitarian aid ... it is time for the UN to take control of the situation,” Mohammed Javad Zarif said.

Two Iranian warships have begun escorting an Iranian cargo ship off Yemen’s waters, the vessel’s captain said in remarks published by Iran’s Tasnim news agency on Monday.

The vessel is reportedly carrying aid to the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida, but the Saudi-led coalition has imposed an arms embargo on Yemen’s ports and air space and will likely block its path before its scheduled arrival on May 21.

The UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had called on Sunday for the five-day ceasefire to be extended during a meeting of Yemeni parties in the capital Riyadh which the Houthis did not attend.

A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Saudi Arabia was an inappropriate venue for Yemeni reconciliation talks because it was not neutral.

Saudi Arabian-led forces, which have been conducting air strikes on Yemen since March 26, have come under criticism after they targeted the runways of Sanaa and Hodeida airports.

The Yemeni foreign minister said resumed coalition air strikes would spare facilities needed to deliver aid supplies.

“They will keep places for aid to come. They will keep places safe like Sanaa airport, Hodeida seaport, Aden seaport. We will encourage and support any humanitarian aid to come in,” he said.

Austrian energy group OMV, which operates from Yemen’s central Masila oilfield, on Monday declared force majeure for the blocks it operates in the country, effective April 23.

The company cited security reasons for the move, after tribes believed to be linked with Yemen’s Al Qaeda branch seized much of the oil-rich area in Hadramawt province last month.

The UN agency OCHA said on Saturday that 1,820 people have died in Yemen’s conflict since March 19, and 7,330 have been wounded and over half a million have been displaced.

* Reuters, Wam and Agence France-Presse