Sanaa air raids resume as Yemen truce expires-residents

SANAA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked targets in Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, hours after a three-day truce in Yemen's war expired, residents in the capital said.

The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of heavy fighting between the Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Each side accused the other of repeatedly violating the truce and U.N. attempts to extend it before it lapsed appeared to have failed.

Air strikes were reported over some military sites in Sanaa in the Hafa camp to the east and in the Nahdein area in the South. Radar positions were also targeted in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida, residents reported.

The strikes happened hours before the arrival in Sanaa of U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is expected to discuss options for a political solution with Houthi representatives.

The United Nations and diplomats had hoped a pause in the conflict would pave the way for talks to end a 19-month-old war which has killed at least 10,000 people in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.</s>The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of heavy fighting between the Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked targets in Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, hours after a three-day truce in Yemen's war expired, residents in the capital said.

The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of heavy fighting between the Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Each side accused the other of repeatedly violating the truce and U.N. attempts to extend it before it lapsed appeared to have failed.

Air strikes were reported over some military sites in Sanaa in the Hafa camp to the east and in the Nahdein area in the South. Radar positions were also targeted in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida, residents reported.

The strikes happened hours before the arrival in Sanaa of U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is expected to discuss options for a political solution with Houthi representatives.

The United Nations and diplomats had hoped a pause in the conflict would pave the way for talks to end a 19-month-old war which has killed at least 10,000 people in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

The coalition has been fighting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen since March 2015 to try to restore to power the internationally backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who went into exile.</s>SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition launched a series of airstrikes around the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday, just hours after a 72-hour cease-fire expired, according to security officials.

They said the pre-dawn airstrikes targeted military facilities belonging to the Shiite Houthi rebels fighting the internationally recognized government. They had no word on casualties or damage.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The airstrikes followed a call by U.N. special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on the warring parties to extend the temporary cease-fire for at least another renewable 72 hours.

The previous 72-hour truce expired at 11:59 p.m. local time Saturday. Ahmed said the cease-fire had largely held during the truce, “despite reported violations from both sides in several areas,” and that it had enabled U.N. personnel to deliver food and humanitarian supplies to several previously inaccessible areas.

“We would like to build on this and we aim for a wider outreach in the next few days,” Ahmed said. There was no immediate word on whether the combatants would consider another cease-fire.

The war in Yemen began in 2014 when Shiite rebels known as Houthis based in the north seized the capital, Sanaa, and later swept across much of the poor Arabian Peninsula country.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies launched a campaign of airstrikes against the rebels.</s>The ceasefire, agreed in order to allow an increased flow of much-needed humanitarian aid, ended without renewal after a day of heavy fighting between the Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Each side accused the other of repeatedly violating the truce and U.N. attempts to extend it before it lapsed appeared to have failed.

Air strikes were reported over some military sites in Sanaa in the Hafa camp to the east and in the Nahdein area in the South. Radar positions were also targeted in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida, residents reported.

The strikes happened hours before the arrival in Sanaa of U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is expected to discuss options for a political solution with Houthi representatives.

The United Nations and diplomats had hoped a pause in the conflict would pave the way for talks to end a 19-month-old war which has killed at least 10,000 people in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

The coalition has been fighting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen since March 2015 to try to restore to power the internationally backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who went into exile.</s>Each side accused the other of repeatedly violating the three-day truce and U.N. attempts to extend it before it lapsed appeared to have failed.

Ground fighting raged largely unabated despite the ceasefire, but air attacks on the capital, Sanaa, stopped and there were fewer Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, residents and local officials said.

The U.N. and diplomats had hoped a pause in the conflict would pave the way for talks to end a 19-month-old war which has killed at least 10,000 people in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, and would allow badly needed aid to be delivered.

A Saudi-led coalition backing the exiled government accused the Houthis of violating the ceasefire almost 1,000 times in the last 24 hours by launching mortar and armed attacks along Yemen's border with the kingdom and in several Yemeni provinces.

General Ahmed al-Asseri, commander of the Saudi 4th Brigade on the border in the Saudi province of Najran, told Reuters his forces were repelling a sustained Houthi ground attack.

"The violation of the truce was not from our side. It was from the other side. We are continuing to thwart them," Asseri said, speaking at a military outpost in the arid mountains separating the two countries.

"In the last 48 hours there was an enormous push by the enemy against our territory ... large numbers of fighters were moving towards the border."

Asseri said coalition forces did conduct an air strike inside Yemen against missiles and launchers that threatened Saudi civilians.

"The presence of missiles next to the border, we must deal with it with decisiveness. We must."

Houthi-run channel al-Masira said its forces had attacked Saudi positions in Najran on Friday and launched rockets into the neighboring Saudi province of Jizan.

The network said Houthi fighters had repelled government advances backed up by Saudi-led air strikes toward the capital Sanaa from several directions.

Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the exiled vice president and a powerful military leader, said in a statement that U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had asked for the truce to be extended for another 72 hours on Friday.

Government sources told Reuters that foreign diplomats had lobbied both sides to prolong the ceasefire, but neither the government nor the Houthis appeared to have complied.

Along the border, trust was in short supply.

"By God, there is a truce, but it doesn't work with these people," said Hussein al-Abdali, 63, whose home in Jizan - in the shadow of Yemen's mountains - was damaged by a Houthi rocket on Thursday.

"They're devils. I swear, they can only be stopped by fire and steel." (Writing by Noah Browning; editing by Andrew Roche)
Saudi Arabian-led air raids on the Yemeni capital Sana'a resume after a truce ends.