Yemen peace talks struggle as air strikes shake truce
SHAKY TRUCE: Houthis and the exiled government are trying to broker a peace through the talks which have killed over 6,000 people
CAIRO: Yemen’s Houthi movement accused a coalition of launching air strikes that killed seven people on Sunday, shaking a truce that has largely held through more than two weeks of UN-backed peace talks in Kuwait.
The Houthis and Yemen’s exiled government are trying to broker a peace through the talks in Kuwait and ease a humanitarian crisis in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.
The year-long conflict has drawn in regional powers and killed at least 6,000 people.
“The aggressor’s planes bombed various districts in the Nehm district, leading to the death of seven martyrs and wounding three,” the Houthis said in a statement.
Political sources from the Houthi group’s rivals in Yemen’s government say the bombing in the Nehm area east of the capital Sanaa was directed at Houthi forces that were massing in the area in violation of a ceasefire that began on April 10.
A spokesman for the mostly Gulf Arab military coalition did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
A civil war in Yemen escalated when an armed push by the Houthis pushed the government into exile on March 26 last year.
Saudi Arabia mustered an alliance of mostly Arab countries to push the group back. But the coalition still appears far from forcing the Houthis out of Sanaa.
If confirmed, the air attack would be the deadliest single incident since the ceasefire began and could increase tension between the rival delegations in Kuwait.
Representatives of the warring sides formed joint political and security committees last week but have made little progress toward a full ceasefire or political transition plan.
Artillery fire hit the regions of Suran and north of Aleppo taking out three rocket installations and three vehicles in addition to the killings of the militants