Red Cross: At least 234 dead in Yemen clashes

Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Armed clashes in Sanaa, Yemen, have killed 234 people in the past four days, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported Tuesday.

Robert Mardini, the regional director leading humanitarian efforts across the Middle East, described on Twitter the "terrible human cost from recent fighting" in Sanaa, the country's capital city.

He said 400 people have been wounded, including 383 severely, in fighting between Shia Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed Monday.

"Our ... teams are now doing all they can to supply hospitals with medicines, surgical materials and fuel," Mardini tweeted.

He wrote that ICRC-supported hospitals have received nearly 70 percent of the casualties.

Mardini earlier posted that "thousands" were trapped in their homes without food or water.

"Little aid has been allowed into the country - millions remain in desperate need. * Medicines and fuel running dangerously low - more clinics closing every day," he posted.

Adnan Hazam, the organization's spokesman in Yemen, told Anadolu Agency that "cautious calm now prevails in parts of the capital that saw violent confrontations in recent days."

He urged both sides to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid and avoid harming civilians.

"Yemen can't afford any more suffering," Hazam said.

Iolanda Jaquemet, another spokeswoman, told the Independent hospitals need electricity to perform surgeries and keep drugs and vaccines cold.

"We hope to donate fuel to the main hospitals because they depend on generators and they are in urgent need of fuel because their stocks are being depleted at a time of the recent increase in the number of casualties," Jaquemet said.

She said her organization had 199 staff in Sanaa on Monday after it "relocated" 13 international staff to Djibouti.

On Monday, Houthi militiamen bombed Saleh's home, sources from both sides of the conflict confirmed.

Saleh, who stepped down as president in 2011, renounced his alliance with the Houthi rebels.