Houthi leader calls for truce along Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia

SANAA, Yemen, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Saleh al-Samad, the head of a Houthi political council, proposed rebels stop attacks along Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia in exchange for airstrikes to cease.

Samad on Sunday also called for the end of the blockade against Yemen in a proposal published on an official Yemen website. There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia about the proposal.

"In exchange for halting the aggression by land, sea and air, stopping airstrikes and lifting the blockade, [we will] stop combat operations along border," Samad said in a speech, Anadolu Agency reports.

At least 10,000 people have died, about half of them civilians, since a coalition led by Saudi Arabia -- and supported by the United States and Britain -- began a military campaign against Houthi militants in March 2015 after the rebels seized the city of Sanaa and began to advance to Aden to overthrow the government of President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi in 2014.