Fighting in Yemen shatters U.N.-brokered ceasefire

SANAA, Yemen, July 12 (UPI) -- A ceasefire organized by the United Nations between Yemen's main warring parties failed to take hold as fighting in the country raged on Saturday, according to reports.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced last week the beginning of a "humanitarian pause" starting Friday, July 10, with U.N. officials saying the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government of Yemen, which is currently in exile, agreed to the week-long truce.

Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis, however, continued past midnight Saturday in the Yemeni city of Taiz and in Sanaa, the capital, according to residents and human rights activists.

Saudi military officials told The New York Times they had received no request from the exiled Yemeni government in Riyadh to comply with the truce.

Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a Saudi military spokesman, told The Times that the Houthis were advancing in several cities, saying the "minimum requirements" for a ceasefire had not been met.

Meanwhile, the Houthis on Saturday shelled rival militias in Taiz and clashed with local opponents in the port city of Aden, where humanitarian aid had failed to arrive, human rights activists told The Times.

The fighting comes after an incident last week in which 30 Yemeni soldiers died in an attempt to defect to the Houthis. Saudi airstrikes were reportedly used to break the mutiny.

Two days prior, airstrikes by the Saudi coalition reportedly killed between eight and 30 civilians in Aden as U.N. officials worked toward the ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab allies joined in a coalition against the Shia Islam-affiliated Houthis in March after the rebels forced Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi from the capital and eventually the country. The coalition's goal is to restore Hadi. It has accused Iran of supporting the Houthis, which Iran has denied.

According to U.N. estimates, up to 3,000 Yemenis have been killed and 14,000 injured in the past three months. More than a million have fled their homes, and about 21 million, or 80 percent of the country's population, are in need of immediate assistance, including 13 million unable to meet food needs and 15 million who lack healthcare amid outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever.