Ahlul Bayt News Agency - The Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemeni people since March declared a five-day truce Saturday so aid can reach a country the UN says is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.
The move came as Yemeni medical sources said a coalition air raid killed at least 35 civilians in the southwest of the war-ravaged Arabian Peninsula nation.
An earlier Saudi-initiated humanitarian pause lasted for five days in May but the coalition resumed air strikes immediately after it expired.
A six-day UN-proposed truce due to begin just before midnight on July 10 also failed as clashes and coalition air strikes persisted.
A Saturday statement carried by the SPA said that the “humanitarian” ceasefire will take effect from Sunday evening at 11:59 pm Yemen’s local time (2100 GMT) and will last for five days.
It said the truce is meant to allow humanitarian and medical aid to be delivered to the Yemeni people.
The statement warned, however, that Riyadh reserves the right to respond to any "military activity or movement" by the Popular Committees allied with the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
It said Saudi fighter jets will keep conducting reconnaissance missions above Yemen to obtain information about the movement of the Houthi forces and their allies.
Yemen’s ruling Ansarullah movement has not yet made any comment on the announcement.
Saudi Arabia had repeatedly violated previous UN-brokered ceasefires in Yemen.
The Saudi aggression against the impoverished Arab nation started on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the ruling Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said earlier this month that at least 1,693 civilians had been killed and 3,829 others injured in the Arab country since March 26. However, local sources say more than 4,500 people have lost their lives.
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