Sanaa - Aid agencies began delivering help to desperate civilians Wednesday as a five-day ceasefire took hold in Yemen after nearly seven weeks of Saudi-led air strikes against Iran-backed rebels.
The five-day humanitarian pause -- which began at 11:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Tuesday -- is the first break in the air war in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since its launch on March 26 and has strong backing from Washington.
Hours after it took effect a Saudi defence ministry official said rockets were fired from Yemen's rebel-held north, hitting the border areas of Jazan and Najran inside the kingdom.
The official said there were no casualties and that Saudi forces had "practised self-restraint as part of their commitment to the humanitarian truce".
The alleged attack came despite a promise by the Shia Huthi rebels and their allies to abide by the ceasefire. Riyadh has warned it will punish any attempt to exploit the truce.
As aid agencies said they were starting to deliver assistance, residents of the rebel-held capital Sanaa told AFP the ceasefire came as a much-needed relief.
"We hope this truce becomes permanent. We finally managed to sleep peacefully last night," said 25-year-old Mohammed al-Saadi.
The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abd-alaziz of Saudi Arabia also used the first day of the pause to announce the doubling of the kingdom's aid commitment to Yemen to some $540 million.
More than 1,500 people have been killed since mid-March in the air campaign and fighting between rebel forces and Hadi loyalists, according to the United Nations.
The Huthi rebels, allied with army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have taken control of large parts of Yemen including Sanaa and were advancing on Hadi's southern stronghold of Aden when Riyadh launched the air campaign.
Saudi Arabia has accused regional rival Iran of arming and funding the rebels, a charge Tehran denies.
AFP
