Fierce fighting in Yemen kills 75

Rebels to release 5 high-ranking prisoners

SANAA, Yemen, Dec 19, (Agencies): Fierce fighting in northern Yemen near the Saudi border has killed more than 75 troops over the past three days, Yemeni security sources and witnesses said Saturday, casting a cloud over already tenuous peace talks in Switzerland.

The clashes in Hajjah province between rebel-allied units and pro-government Yemeni forces killed more than 40 rebels and 35 government troops, with 50 wounded on the rebel side and dozens wounded on the government side, they said.

Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed in the fighting and most of the dead were killed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition that dominates the skies in Yemen, said the witnesses and security sources, who remain neutral in the conflict that has splintered Yemen.

The government troops advanced across the border from Saudi territory after training there for months, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Yemen’s fighting pits the internationally

recognized government backed by a Saudiled, -supported coalition against the rebels, known as Houthis, who are allied with a former president and backed by Iran.

The fighting comes as the Yemeni rebel delegation at peace talks in Switzerland suspended meetings with the internationally recognized government on Friday in protest over its cease-fire violations.

The rebels, known as Houthis, said they would not resume talks unless the UN condemned the breaches by government forces of the week-long truce, delegates at the talks told The Associated Press.

The United Nations, which is mediating the talks, cast doubts on the alleged suspension, however, with special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed saying that the heads of delegations had renewed their commitment for a ceasefire.

The UN has urged all factions in the conflict to end the violence and is pressing to keep the talks going.

It was unclear to what extent the renewed combat would affect progress at the talks in Switzerland. On Thursday, the Houthis agreed to permit the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries into the besieged city of Taiz as well as the cities of Saada and Hajjah, the capital of the province where the fresh fighting was taking place.

Earlier Saturday, the rebels agreed to release five high-profile prisoners, including the president’s brother and the defense minister, as a gesture of good will, two participants at the talks said.

Defense Minister Mahmoud Subaihi and Gen Nasser Mansour Hadi, brother of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, would be handed over to the Red Cross with the other three prisoners later in the day, they said.

Delegation

The participants, one from the Houthi rebel delegation and the other from Yemen’s internationally recognized government, spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Negotiators taking part in Yemen peace talks in Switzerland agreed Saturday to create a “neutral” committee to monitor the country’s fragile ceasefire after new clashes left it in tatters, a source close to the talks told AFP.

“There is an understanding over forming a neutral military committee tasked with monitoring the ceasefire,” a source close to the government delegation said.

The development came after the ceasefire, which took effect on Tuesday and was supposed to last a week, all but collapsed Friday as government forces seized two towns from rebels and their Saudi-led Arab coalition allies accused the insurgents of escalating the conflict by firing ballistic missiles.

UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had on Friday voiced alarm at the widespread ceasefire violations.

His office said the negotiating parties in Switzerland had created “a coordination and de-escalation committee ... to strengthen adherence to the cessation of hostilities.”

The negotiators met at a hotel in the northwestern Swiss city of Biel for a fifth day of talks Saturday as they scramble to end the spiralling conflict, which has killed more than 5,800 people since March.

But sources close to both delegations told AFP Saturday afternoon that the talks had ended for the day with little progress.

A source close to the delegation representing Hadi’s government said there had been no agreement on the general framework for the talks and no agreement on the opening of humanitarian corridors.

On Thursday, the UN had said that the two sides had agreed to “a full and immediate resumption of humanitarian assistance” in the flashpoint city of Taez in what the UN envoy had called “a major step forward”.

But a local relief group, the Humanitarian Relief Coalition, said no UN aid had reached the city, accusing rebels of blocking aid delivery to areas where Hadi loyalists were holed up.

In a letter submitted by the government delegation to the talks Saturday a lawyer in Taez accused the rebels of confiscating aid sent by the UN World Food Programme.

In another move that had been seen as promising, the pro-government forces and rebels completed an exchange of hundreds of prisoners in the southern province of Lahj on Thursday.

But the government delegation source told AFP the sides on Saturday had failed to agree any further such moves.

“There has been no progress in the detainees issue,” he said.