Saudi Arabia, Yemen rebels trade charges of truce breaches

Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iranian- backed Shiite rebels today traded charges of violating a humanitarian cease-fire, as a helicopter gunship belonging to the Saudi-led coalition struck a truck in northern Yemen, killing nine people.
The attack was the latest in a series of violent incidents marring the cease-fire and came as the rivalry over Yemen between Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Shiite, non-Arab Iran escalated, with a senior Iranian official directing unusually harsh comments at Riyadh.
The Saudi embassy in Washington said in a statement that the rebels, known as Houthis, have "deliberately" breached the five-day truce, citing seven separate incidents in which forces guarding its border came under attack by rebels using mortars, rockets and sniper fire.

The Saudi statement also cited five separate incidents in which the rebels and their allies broke the cease-fire by targeting civilians or seeking to reinforce their fighting positions.
In a letter to the new UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania, a senior official from Ansar Allah, the Houthis' political arm, said the coalition violated the cease-fire in roughly the same provinces cited in the Saudi complaint -- Aden, Shabwa, Taiz, al-Dhale.
"Everyone carries a large responsibility to pressure the other party and to force it to commit to the respect of the truce," said the statement, signed by Mahdi al-Mashat, Ansar Allah's chief negotiator.

Yemeni security and military officials said the attack on the truck, which was suspected of carrying rebel weapons, took place in the northern Saada province, a stronghold of the rebels and the birthplace of their political movement.
The Houthis last year captured Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's north before they marched southward. Also on Thursday, coalition warplanes flew over Sanaa, Saada and the port cities of Aden and Hodeida in what appeared to be reconnaissance flights, said the officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.