Yemen truce efforts gather pace as rebel heartland hit

Yemen ceasefire efforts gathered pace today after more than six weeks of Saudi-led air strikes, with rebels saying they would respond "positively" and their allies accepting a US-backed truce plan.
The renegade troops, who helped the Shiite Huthi rebels seize much of the country, said they had agreed to the five-day humanitarian truce that Riyadh has offered from Tuesday.
The rebels did not refer explicitly to the Saudi offer, but expressed "readiness to deal positively with any efforts, calls or measures that would help end the suffering".
Amid the truce moves, a ship chartered by the UN's World Food Programme docked in the western port of Hodeida, bringing precious fuel to boost aid deliveries.

It aimed at "opening up a new humanitarian lifeline for civilians impacted by the conflict" in Yemen, where drastic fuel shortages have hurt aid operations, the WFP said.
The MV Amsterdam brought 300,000 litres of fuel and supplies for humanitarian organisations, while a second vessel would bring another 120,000 litres later today.

WFP Yemen director Purnima Kashyap said the fuel will mean aid can reach "hundreds of thousands of people in need of urgent food assistance".
The United Nations has expressed deep concern about the civilian death toll from the bombing campaign and the humanitarian impact of the air and sea blockade that Saudi Arabia and its allies have imposed on Yemen.

Coalition warplanes pounded the Huthi stronghold Saada in the northern mountains for a second straight night yesterday after declaring the whole province a military target.
"Many civilians are effectively trapped in Saada as they are unable to access transport because of the fuel shortage," the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Johannes van der Klaauw, said in a statement, warning of "the indiscriminate bombing of populated areas."
Warplanes also launched twin strikes on the Sanaa residence of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is accused of orchestrating the alliance between renegade army units and the rebels.
The renegade units, who remained loyal to Saleh after he was forced from power in early 2012, played a major part in the Iran-backed rebels' capture of swathes of the country beyond Saada in the mainly Shiite northern highlands.