Airstrikes by Saudi-led forces hit positions in and around the southern Yemeni city of Aden overnight, residents said, after a five-day humanitarian truce expired on Sunday. The attacks were resumed despite a UN call for the truce to be extended to allow in more aid.
Bombings struck the Houthis-held presidential palace in Aden, groups of militiamen on the western and eastern approaches to the city as well as the international airport where Houthis and local fighters have been clashing, said residents, Reuters reported.
Foreign minister of Yemen’s fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi said the Saudi-led coalition had decided not to renew the truce, claiming that the agreement “had been repeatedly broken by the Houthis.”
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have been conducting an offensive against the Houthis and forces loyal to Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh for more than six weeks.
A five-day truce that started on Tuesday night halted the airstrikes and allowed humanitarian aid into the blockaded country, though residents of the remote southern provinces of Shabwa, Dhalea and Abyan said heavy ground fighting persisted despite the agreed pause.
More than 1,800 people have been killed in airstrikes and fighting on the ground since the Saudi-led military invasion began, with up to 545,700 people displaced by the violence, according to the latest UN figures.
