Taez, Yemen - Yemeni rebels demanded a Saudi-led coalition completely end its attacks as a condition for UN-sponsored talks, as the alliance launched new air strikes Wednesday a day after declaring its month-long campaign over.
The fresh raids broke a brief lull after the coalition's announcement on Tuesday night that the first phase of its "successful" bombing campaign had finished and that it was now focusing on political efforts.
The Saudi-led coalition had warned it stood ready to counter any advance by the rebels and their allies, however.
And it duly responded with more firepower when the Huthi rebels took advantage of the cessation in Yemen's third city Taez to overrun the headquarters of the 35th Armoured Brigade loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
Ground fighting between the rebels and Hadi loyalists raged on in a string of battleground towns, including the second city of Aden, as well as Taez.
The clashes left "dozens dead and wounded", an army officer said.
In their first statement since the coalition announcement, the Shiite rebels demanded a complete halt to the alliance's attacks as a condition for UN-sponsored talks.
"We demand, after a complete end to the aggression against Yemen and the lifting of the blockade, to resume political dialogue... under the sponsorship of the United Nations," said spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam.
The UN had sponsored a Gulf-brokered peace deal that eased former president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office in February 2012, ending a year of bloody nationwide protests against his three decades of iron-fisted rule.
But the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, resigned last week after he lost Gulf countries' support, according to diplomats.
- Situation 'catastrophic' -
The World Health Organization says at least 944 people have been killed in Yemen since March 19 and there were calls from all sides for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.
Riyadh said the strikes, which it launched on March 26 as the rebels closed in on Hadi's last refuge in Aden, had succeeded in eliminating the threat posed to Saudi Arabia and its neighbours by the rebels' air and missile capabilities.
But rebels remain in control of Sanaa and swathes of the country while Hadi is in exile in Riyadh, where he fled when the raids began.
The coalition said its operations would now enter a political phase with the focus on the resumption of talks, aid deliveries and "fighting terrorism".
The Red Cross warned of a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation, however, with fuel supplies reaching "zero levels" and an acute shortage of food leading to soaring prices.
Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch, regarded by Washington as its most dangerous, has taken advantage of the conflict to consolidate its grip on Hadramawt province in the southeast.
Seven suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed in an apparent US drone strike on the provincial capital Mukalla, which the jihadists overran earlier this month, witnesses and an official said.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has acknowledged that Al-Qaeda is gaining ground but has vowed that the longstanding US drone war will go on.
AFP
