Sana’a: A new UN envoy was looking to kickstart peace talks in Yemen as battles raged on Sunday between Iran-backed militiamen and pro-government forces a month after the launch of Saudi-led air strikes.
Al Houthi militiamen, who have overrun large parts of the country and forced President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee abroad, have demanded an end to the air strikes as a condition for UN-sponsored talks.
But the raids continued on Sunday, hitting the militia-held presidential palace in Sana’a and anti-government positions in the main southern city of Aden, military sources and witnesses said.
Fighting also intensified in Marib province, east of the capital, where Sunni tribes and pro-Hadi fighters clashed with Al Houthis and their allied forces.
A military official said the presidential complex in Sana’a was targeted as reinforcements were being prepared to send to oil-rich Marib.
The United Nations on Saturday confirmed Mauritanian diplomat Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad as the new special envoy to Yemen, replacing Moroccan Jamal Bin Omar, who resigned last week following what diplomats described as sharp criticism of his performance by Gulf countries.
Ould Shaikh Ahmad “will work closely with the members of the United Nations Security Council, the Gulf Cooperation Council, governments in the region and other partners, as well as the United Nations country team for Yemen,” a UN statement said.
Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who still holds sway over army units allied with the Al Houthi militia, late on Friday urged Al Houthis to heed UN demands to withdraw from territory they have seized.
US Secretary of State John Kerry also called on anti-government forces to enter into political dialogue to end a conflict that the United Nations says has killed more than 1,000 people since late March.
A US aircraft carrier headed to Yemeni waters last week to monitor an Iranian convoy that had raised suspicions. It redeployed on Friday after the convoy turned back, Pentagon officials said.
The coalition has kept up air strikes days after announcing its campaign was entering a new phase aimed at resuming the political process, delivering aid and fighting “terrorism”.
Marib has been the scene of days of deadly clashes between militiamen and fighters loyal to Hadi.
Sunni tribes and pro-Hadi troops battled Al Houthi militiamen and their allies in Marib’s Sarwah district, through which Yemen’s main oil export pipeline passes, tribal sources said.
The 435-kilometre line links Marib’s Safir oilfields with the Ras Isa terminal on the Red Sea coast, and control of it has been a key goal for the militiamen and their allies.
Tribal sources said 90 militiamen were killed in clashes and air strikes in Marib. Eight pro-Hadi fighters were also killed in fighting, they said.
AFP could not independently verify the death toll.
In other fighting, local officials in Taiz, southwest of Sana’a, said intense clashes had left casualties, among them civilians.
In the southern city of Daleh, coalition planes dropped medical aid to pro-Hadi fighters, after the Al Houthis prevented a convoy of humanitarian organisations from carrying aid into the city, local officials said.
The UN says millions of people have been affected by the conflict and are struggling to access health care, water, food and fuel.
It estimates that at least 551 of those killed since late March were civilians, including at least 115 children.