Despite UN-brokered truce deal, Saudi Arabia bombs Yemen

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Despite a UN-brokered truce, Saudi-led coalition forces bombed Houthi targets in several provinces of Yemen on Sunday killing at least 15 people, sources said.

The fresh airstrikes against Houthi fighters in the capital Sanaa killed at least 12 people on Sunday while several people were receiving treatment in hospitals, Xinhua cited the medical sources as saying.

The airstrikes also destroyed a conference hall used by the Shia Houthi group and damaged several civilian houses.

In Amran province, the warplanes hit a cement factory on Sunday, killing three people and wounding 10 others, the state-run Saba news agency reported.

The coalition also carried out air raids in Saada province, which is a Houthi stronghold, and the province of Lahj, security sources said. There were no reports of casualties.

The UN-brokered truce took into effect on Friday and will last through the end of Muslim holy month of Ramadan on July 17. However, the warring parties did not abide by the ceasefire deal.

The Saudi-led coalition forces and Houthi group continued their military operations Friday midnight, hours after the truce technically came into effect.

The temporary truce was aimed at facilitating aid deliveries to more than 21 million people in Yemen who have suffered a severe shortage of food, water and medicine supplies after more than three months of airstrikes and civil war.

The Saudi-led coalition has been striking the Houthis and their allied forces since March 26 when Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was ousted by the Houthi militia which seized the capital Sanaa by force in September last year.

UN human rights agencies reported that more than 3,000 Yemenis have been killed, mostly civilians, and over 13,000 others wounded, while more than a million have fled their homes since late March.

According to UN statistics, the coalition-imposed blockade has also contributed in starving millions in Yemen where nearly 13 million people face a food security crisis and 9.4 million people have their access to water cut or severely disrupted, raising the risk of outbreaks of water-borne diseases.

(With inputs from IANS)