Warring parties breach UN-brokered truce in Yemen

Fighting rages in Yemen after a United Nations-brokered humanitarian truce came into effect early Saturday as the warring parties were accused of breaching the ceasefire, officials and witnesses said.

Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition forces struck several military targets in Yemen's capital Sanaa and other major cities early on Saturday, two hours after the truce came into effect, while the Shiite Houthi group fired mortar shells against pro-government fighters in Mansoura neighborhood in the southern port city of Aden, witnesses told Xinhua.

The ceasefire, which was announced Thursday by the U.N. between Yemen's exiled government in Saudi Arabia and the Shiite Houthi group controlling the capital of Sanaa, started on 23:59 (2059 GMT) on Friday and will last through the end of Muslim holy month of Ramadan on July 17.

It aimed at facilitating aid deliveries to more than 21 million people in Yemen who have been suffered severe shortage in food, water and medicine supplies after more than three months of airstrikes and ground fighting.

The U.N. statement said Thursday that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had received assurances from Houthis, the General People's Congress, the former ruling party led by ex-President Ali Abdullash Saleh who supported the Houthis, and other parties that "the pause will be fully respected and that there will be no violations from any combatants under their control."

"It is imperative and urgent that humanitarian aid can reach all vulnerable people of Yemen unimpeded and through an unconditional humanitarian pause," said the statement.

The U.N. envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has warned that the conflict-torn country is just "one step from famine."

However, residents in Sanaa said the fresh airstrikes hit two military bases controlled by Houthi-allied forces loyal to Saleh, causing explosions that shook the residential neighborhoods.

The warplanes also hit Houthi gathering and its allied forces in Aden city and provinces of Taiz, Ibb and Dhamar, according to local residents.

The airstrikes destroyed several armored vehicles and tanks of the Houthis in Aden early on Saturday, local security officials said.

The coalition fighter jets later hit military targets in the Houthi stronghold of Saada province which borders Saudi Arabia, said local tribal officials.

At the same time, security officials said the Shiite fighters and their allied forces clashed at midnight with pro-government fighters in Aden and Taiz, as well as neighboring al-Dhalee province.

Witnesses said the clashes took place in several cities as the Houthis advanced into areas controlled by the pro-government fighters.

The warring parties accused the other of violating the truce.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi delivered a speech aired by his group's Almasirah television on Friday night, in which he said "there is no hope for the declared truce to be successful as our experience of the previous one was bitter."

On May 12, the Saudi-led Arab coalition unilaterally declared a five-day ceasefire in Yemen to allow deliveries of humanitarian aids. But it was broken by all sides.

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.

U.N. 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. Endit