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Five-day halt to Saudi airstrikes comes into force

Yemeni children lay in their beds at a hospital in the capital Sana’a on May 12, 2015, a day after they were wounded in a Saudi raid. (AFP Photo)

A five-day halt to Saudi Arabia’s war against the improvised neighboring country of Yemen has come into force.

The ceasefire kicked off at 11 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Tuesday.

The truce was proposed by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir last week. Yemen’s Ansarullah movement has announced its cooperation in any actions that will stop suffering in the country. 

Earlier on Tuesday, around 140 people were killed during a series of Saudi airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and the southern city of Ta’izz just hours before the temporary halt in the attacks was scheduled to take effect.   

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which currently controls Sana’a and other major provinces, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

According to the latest UN figures, the Saudi military campaign has so far claimed the lives of over 1,400 people and injured close to 6,000 people, roughly half of whom have been civilians.

SRK/MHB/AS


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