SANAA:
Saudi-led air strikes and heavy shelling between warring factions shook several cities in Yemen on Saturday, violating a United Nations humanitarian truce which took effect just before midnight.
A coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel movement — Yemen’s dominant force — since late March in a bid to restore to power President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh.
That coalition said on Saturday that the Yemeni government in exile had not asked it to pause, according to a news flash on Saudi-owned Arabiya TV. Yemeni government officials were not immediately available to comment.
In Aden, one of the country’s most deprived and war-torn areas, witnesses said Houthi forces fired mortars and Katyusha rockets toward opposition fighters based in northern areas and around the city’s international airport.
Bombing by the Arab alliance and fighting have killed more than 3,000 people since March 26.