Fighting in Yemen undercuts truce call

SANAA, Yemen — Fighting between Saudi-led coalition forces and Yemen’s Shiite rebels flared again around the Red Sea port city of Hodeida despite U.N. calls for a cease-fire, Yemeni officials and witnesses said Tuesday.

The escalation, which followed a lull that had been in place since earlier this month, began late Monday with coalition airstrikes hitting the rebels, known as Houthis, in and around Hodeida.

The renewed fighting undermines the latest U.N. efforts to end the three-year war. The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition has been battling the rebels since March 2015 to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government to power. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed much of the country to the brink of starvation.

In Hodeida, fighting was also underway Tuesday in the main Khamsin Street in the city center and in al-Saleh district, officials and witnesses said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters; the witnesses did so for fear for their safety.

Yemen’s Information Minister Moammer al-Iryani said the Houthis shelled the city center and neighborhoods held by government forces. Meanwhile, the rebel-run Al Masirah TV said the rebels attacked government forces on a main road linking the capital, Sanaa, and Hodeida. Government forces had captured the road in September.