Saudi warplanes launched more than 28 airstrikes on Yemen despite earlier claiming that it had ordered its forces to halt their attacks at the beginning of peace talks in Sweden.
Three women were reportedly killed and several houses destroyed.
The deadly strikes took place as the warring sides gathered in Sweden for peace talks brokered by the United Nations
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A Yemeni army general told the al-Masirah television network: “The fact that the coalition forces and their mercenaries have continued their aggression against Yemen on the first day of peace talks in Sweden indicates that the aggressors have no interest in the establishment of peace and preparing the grounds for a second round of talks”
Press TV reports: In retaliation, Yemeni army forces, backed by allied fighters from the Houthi Ansarullah movement, hit gatherings of Saudi soldiers and mercenaries in the kingdom’s southwestern Jizan region on Thursday.
Using six domestically-manufactured Zelzal-1 (Quake-1) short-range missiles, they hit the enemy gatherings off Qais Mountain and the village of al-Laj in Jizan province.
The report added that at least three Saudi-led forces had been killed and two others wounded by explosives planted by Yemeni troops in al-Nar Mount area in Jizan.
Meanwhile, al-Masirah said in a separate report that the Yemeni army had managed to shoot down a spy drone belonging to Saudi-led forces in the coasts of Yemen’s western province of Hudaydah.
Later on Thursday, the Yemeni army spokesman said that 28 Saudi mercenaries were killed and 64 others injured during clashes with Yemeni forces in Damt region in the southern province of Dali’.
The escalation comes as Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy to Yemen, told reporters that the warring sides were willing to work towards a de-escalation of the crisis.
Talks between the Ansarullah movement and the Saudi-led military coalition opened on Thursday in Rimbo, Sweden, a rural area some 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Stockholm.
They are expected to last a week, a UN official told reporters.
The meeting marks the first time warring Yemeni parties have officially met since 2016, when more than 100 days of negotiations in Kuwait yielded no breakthrough in the devastating conflict.
Griffiths said he was cautiously optimistic the talks would help find common ground between the warring parties, particularly over the fate of the city of Hudaydah, which is currently under a tight siege imposed by the invaders.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called for the immediate removal of Saudi Arabia’s blockade on Yemen as the Sweden talks started. He also called on the Ansarullah movement and Yemen’s former Saudi-backed government to show flexibility and make room for progress.
A spokesman for Guterres said later on that the secretary general was specifically appealing to both sides to continue the de-escalation in the port city of Hudaydah, which acts as a lifeline for the entire country.
Niamh Harris
Hø? Some joke
Typical fucking Islam.