Saudi-led airstrikes resume in Yemen
SANAA (AP) — Coalition airstrikes hit rebel positions and tanks in several neighborhoods of Aden after the ceasefire expired at 11 p.m. on Sunday, Yemeni security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The ceasefire hadn’t halted all fighting in Yemen between the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, and government forces loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Earlier Sunday, hundreds of Yemeni politicians and tribal leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia for three days of talks on Yemen’s future, but the Houthis refused to participate.
The Shiite rebels reject the main aim of the talks — the restoration of Hadi, who fled the country in March in the face of rebel advances — and the location of the negotiations in Saudi Arabia, which is leading an air campaign against the Houthis and their allies.
The absence of the Houthis means the national dialogue is unlikely to end the violence.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, opened the meeting in Riyadh by calling on all parties to ensure that the shaky ceasefire leads to a lasting truce.
”I call on all parties to refrain from any action that disturbs the peace of airports, main areas and the infrastructure of transport,” said Ahmed, speaking on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Since late March, Saudi Arabia has led airstrikes against the Houthis and allied military units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The campaign is aimed at weakening the Houthis and restoring Hadi, who addressed the talks Sunday.
”This conference taking place today is in support of politics and community, and rejects the coup,” Hadi told the gathering.
He urged a return to the political road map through which Saleh stepped down after more than three decades in power following a 2011 Arab Springinspired uprising.
Saleh’s ouster and the road map was backed and overseen by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which is headquartered in Saudi Arabia, as well as the UN and the US.
Among those taking part in the conference are members of Saleh’s former ruling party.
Yemen’s conflict has killed more than 1,400 people — many of them civilians — since March 19, according to the UN.
The country of some 25 million people has endured shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity as a result of a Saudi-led blockade.
Humanitarian organizations had been scrambling to distribute aid before the end of the truce.