SANAA // Yemen’s Houthi rebels violated a ceasefire on Thursday, but the Saudi-led coalition pledged its commitment to the five-day humanitarian truce that has allowed aid agencies to deliver relief supplies.
The Iran-backed rebels violated the truce 12 times, including with artillery and rocket attacks in several towns in the south, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Officials said rockets fired from the rebel-held north had also hit Saudi border areas on Wednesday and that there had been rebel troop movements in Yemen’s south.
Despite the violations, the coalition – which includes the UAE – pledged “its full commitment to the humanitarian truce and restraint”.
The humanitarian pause that began on Tuesday is the first break in the air war launched on March 26 by the Saudi-led coalition in support of exiled president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, and has strong backing from Washington.
Residents said calm prevailed across most of the country on Thursday except in three cities – Taiz, Daleh and oil-rich Marib – where there were reports of intermittent exchanges of fire between rebel and pro-Hadi forces.
The violations came despite a promise by the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies to abide by the ceasefire. Riyadh has warned it will punish any attempt to exploit the truce.
The US state department said that while the truce was “broadly” holding, it had received some reports of clashes after the ceasefire began.
The Houthis, allied with army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have taken control of large parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa and were advancing on Mr Hadi’s southern stronghold of Aden when Riyadh launched the air campaign.
More than 1,500 people have been killed since March in the air campaign and fighting between rebel forces and Hadi loyalists, according to the United Nations.
An aviation official said that operations at Sanaa airport, which was repeatedly targeted in air raids, were “gradually returning” after a plane arrived from Jordan on Wednesday with 150 passengers on board.
In text messages sent to residents, Yemen’s civil aviation authority announced that “two flights from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the United Nations will arrive today [Thursday] in Sanaa”.
The weeks since the start of the air war have seen repeated warnings of a dire humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food, water, fuel and medical aid.
The UN’s food agency said on Wednesday that the situation in Yemen had become “catastrophic”.
Dominique Burgeon, emergencies director at the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation, said the problems civilians faced were “very serious and at the moment the country lacks everything”.
The government’s Sabanew.net agency quoted Riyadh-based Nadia Sakkaf, Yemen’s information minister and head of the country’s High Relief Committee, saying that seven vessels carrying food supplies, medical aid and fuel had docked in Yemeni ports.
She said that daily flights would continue between Yemen, Jordan and Egypt until May 18 – when the truce is due to end.
Iran, which Saudi Arabia accuses of arming the rebels, has also said it is sending an aid ship to Yemen, prompting warnings from the US and Yemen’s government-in-exile.
Yemen’s government said on Thursday it was recalling the head of its embassy in Iran, accusing Tehran of “interference in our affairs and support for the Houthis” rebelling against authorities.
“The legitimate government of Yemen is recalling charge d’affaires Abdullah Al Sirri,” a statement from the press office of Mr Hadi’s said.
Speaking from Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s foreign minister Riyadh Yassin said that “all measures will be taken against the Iranian ship if it enters Yemeni territorial waters without permission” from the coalition, Sabanew.net reported.
Iran has so far refrained from deploying warships to accompany a cargo ship that Tehran says is carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen, despite its announced plans to do so, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said on Thursday.
The United States has criticised Iran’s announced plans to send the ship directly to Yemen and urged Tehran to redirect the ship to Djibouti, from where the United Nations is coordinating aid distribution.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday it was tracking the aid ship, while the Iranian military has warned against any attempts to stop it.
* Agence France-Presse, additional reporting from Reuters