Yemen truce strained by reports of air strikes and fighting
A truce aimed at ending more than a year of war in Yemen appeared to be largely holding on April 11, although residents said fighting was still going on in parts of the country.
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The UN-brokered ceasefire is meant to precede peace talks in a country that has become the face of rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. It seemed to be holding up despite "pockets of violence", UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York.
Artillery fire, gun battles and air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition were reported across Yemen, but a spokesman for the Iranian-allied Houthi movement said on April 11 the group would respect the cessation of hostilities.
"We express our condemnation of air strikes and the military advances made in some fronts since this morning," Mohammed Abdel-Salam said in a statement on his Facebook page.
The Houthis said they had set up committees in six provinces to prevent escalation and coordinate aid efforts with the United Nations.
Earlier on April 11, the Yemeni government and its Houthi adversaries blamed each other for violence in the city of Taiz. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV accused the Houthis of launching a ballistic missile, in violation of the truce.
The Soviet-era Tochka missile was fired into the battle-scarred northern desert province of al-Jawf but was intercepted in mid-air, the network reported.
Residents reported air attacks in support of government forces in the provinces of Taiz, al-Jawf and on the outskirts of Sanaa, the capital.
"There's continuous shelling in the downtown and the suburbs, and we can hear explosions across the city," said Jameel Abdo Ahmed, a civil servant in the battered frontline city of Taiz. Another resident said: "Nothing's changed."
A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports of continued air strikes.
