SANAA: Saudi-led warplanes launched new deadly strikes in Yemen on Thursday despite a demand by rebels for a complete halt to the raids as a condition for UN-sponsored peace talks.

The Saudi-led coalition declared an end to the first phase of its operations against the Houthi rebels and their allies, but vowed to keep hitting them with targeted bombing when necessary.

And two days on from the announcement, a new wave of strikes killed at least 23 rebels as the World Health Organisation said the overall death toll from fighting in Yemen since late March topped 1,000.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced plans to appoint Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as his new envoy to the country.

Cheikh Ahmed replaces Morocco’s Jamal Benomar, who resigned last week after losing support for his mediation efforts from oil-rich Gulf countries.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched the air war on March 26 in an attempt to restore the authority of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced to flee abroad last month as the rebels swept across the country.

After the end of Operation Decisive Storm, the coalition said the campaign would enter a phase dubbed Renewal of Hope focusing on political efforts, aid deliveries and “fighting terrorism”.

But the Saudi ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubeir, has since warned that “the Houthis should be under no illusion that we will use force in order to stop them taking over Yemen by aggressive actions”.

His remarks came as US President Barack Obama called on Iran to help find a political solution in Yemen, accusing the Islamic republic of contributing to the conflict.

The Houthis have called for a complete halt to air raids so that warring parties could return to the negotiating table. “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.

Since his remarks, however, a new wave of strikes killed at least 23 rebels in the southern town of Daleh, a government official said.

Other raids targeted them in nearby Lahj.

In Yemen’s third city of Taez, a Red Cross official said his team had retrieved the bodies of 10 loyalist troops thought to have been killed two days ago when rebels overran their base. There were more bodies, he said, but the Houthis had denied rescuers access to the area.

The discovery came after a night of air raids in Taez that caused an unknown number of casualties, according to a medic.

A pro-Hadi military official said “heavy” air raids later struck rebel gatherings in the second city of Aden, where clashes between rebels and loyalists raged.

Three raids hit rebels in the eastern province of Marib, and others targeted a rebel-held air base in the western city of Hodeida.

“The war is not over” but “there are several attempts to find a political solution,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, political science professor at the University of the Emirates.

On Thursday, strikes also targeted Yarim in Ibb province, where warplanes hit an old university building used as a rebel headquarters, residents said.

A newly announced division of the so-called Islamic State group — the “Green Brigade” — also claimed a bombing in Yarim the day before that it said killed five rebels.

In Lahj and Daleh, raids flattened five rebel positions in schools and public buildings, pro-Hadi fighters said.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2015

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