Ali Abdullah Saleh

Saudi-led warplanes pounded the rebel-held Yemeni capital before dawn on Dec. 5 after the rebels killed former president Ali Abdullah Saleh as he fled the city following the collapse of their uneasy alliance, residents said.

The radio station of Yemen’s Houthi-run interior ministry said yesterday the militia’s former war ally turned adversary, ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, had been killed as fighting racked the capital Sanaa though there was no independent confirmation.

The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes on Yemen’s capital Sanaa overnight on Sunday, local media said, lending support to loyalists of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh after he signaled a strategy shift that could pave the way to end the war.

More than 5,000 civilians have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, including 1,184 children, the U.N. human rights office said on Sept. 5, renewing its calls for an international probe into the conflict.

A rebel court in Yemen's insurgent-held capital has sentenced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to death for high treason in absentia, the rebel news agency has said.

Yemen yesterday marked the second anniversary of a Saudi-led coalition starting air strikes against the Huthi rebels in support of Hadi's government, after the insurgents overran the capital Sanaa.

Fighting for a key port city on Yemen's Red Sea coast has left at least 40 rebel and pro-government fighters dead, military officials said Jan. 24.

Loyalist forces said on Jan. 23 that they had captured the port of Mokha, almost three weeks into an offensive to oust Shiite Houthi insurgents and their allies from Yemen's southwestern coast.

Yemen saw a rare respite from fighting on Nov. 20, the second day of a 48-hour cease-fire that followed a U.S. push to halt a conflict that has wrought devastation and killed thousands.

The warring parties in Yemen have agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire that will take effect shortly before midnight on Oct. 19, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen said.
Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he hopes the temporary truce can lead to "permanent and lasting end to the conflict."

"They hit everything, hospitals, orphanages, schools," Hisham al-Omeisy told The Guardian newspaper six months ago. "You live in constant fear that your kids' school could be the next target."

Yemen's government forces battled al Qaeda in the country's south on April 23, aiming to push back advances the militant group has made during a year-long civil war while peace talks take place in Kuwait.