Yemen Huthis Demand Complete End to Attacks, Seek Talks amid New Raids

Shiite rebels in Yemen on Wednesday demanded a complete end to attacks by a Saudi-led coalition as a condition for U.N.-sponsored talks, a day after the alliance declared an end to the first phase of its operations.

"We demand, after a complete end to the aggression against Yemen and the lifting of the blockade, to resume political dialogue... under the sponsorship of the United Nations," Mohammed Abdulsalam, the spokesman for the Huthi rebels, said in a statement. 

Saudi-led warplanes launched new strikes Wednesday on rebel positions in Yemen's third city Taez after the coalition had warned it stood ready to counter any advance by the rebels and their allies. 

The Huthi rebels' spokesman praised the United Nations' "positive efforts and its declared support for national dialogue."

His remarks came despite the U.N. Security Council's adoption last week of a resolution that slapped sanctions on the rebels and demanded they immediately withdraw from territory seized.

The U.N. had sponsored a Gulf-brokered peace deal that eased former president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office in February 2012, ending a year of nationwide bloody protests against his three decades of iron-fisted rule.

But the U.N. envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, resigned last week after he lost Gulf countries' support, according to diplomats.

Meanwhile, ground fighting between the rebels and forces loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi raged on in a string of battleground towns, including the second city of Aden as well as Taez, in a blow to U.S.-led calls for renewed peace talks.

In Taez, the rebels took advantage of the lull in air strikes to overrun the headquarters of the 35th Armoured Brigade, loyal to Hadi, which they had besieged for nearly a week, an army officer said.

The Saudi-led coalition hit back with air strikes against rebel positions inside the captured camp and elsewhere in the city.

The fighting left "dozens dead and wounded", the officer told AFP.

The World Health Organization says at least 944 people have been killed in Yemen since March 19 and there were calls from all sides for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.

Riyadh said the strikes, which it launched on March 26 as the rebels closed in on Hadi's last refuge in Aden, had succeeded in eliminating the threat posed to Saudi Arabia and its neighbours by the rebels' air and missile capabilities.

But rebel forces remain in control of the capital Sanaa and swathes of the country and Hadi is still in exile in Riyadh, where he fled when the raids began.

The coalition said its operations would now enter a political phase with the focus on the resumption of talks, aid deliveries and "fighting terrorism".

- Qaida threat - 

Al-Qaida's Yemen branch, regarded by Washington as its most dangerous, has taken advantage of the air war and ground fighting between the rebels and Hadi loyalists to consolidate its grip on Hadramawt province in the southeast.

Seven suspected al-Qaida militants were killed in an apparent U.S. drone strike on the provincial capital Mukalla, which the jihadists overran earlier this month, witnesses and a local official said.

U.S. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter has acknowledged that al-Qaida is gaining ground but has vowed that the longstanding U.S. drone war will go on.

Washington welcomed the end of the Saudi-led air campaign to which it had given intelligence and logistical support.

"The United States welcomes today's announcement by the government of Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners of the conclusion of Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen," National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey told AFP.

"We continue to support the resumption of a UN-facilitated political process and the facilitation of humanitarian assistance."

 - Talks calls - 

U.N.-brokered talks between the warring parties broke down in February when Hadi fled to Aden after the Huthis seized power in the capital.

Hadi's ousted predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has provided key support to the Shiite rebels, said he hoped the halt to the air war would lead to a return to dialogue.

"We hope that everyone will cooperate to return to dialogue, to find solutions other than placing losing bets that are wrong and costly," he said.

Army units which remained loyal to Saleh after his ouster in 2012 following a bloody year-long uprising have provided crucial support to the rebels in their advance across much of the country.

In an apparent goodwill gesture, the rebels freed three top commanders -- including the defense minister and a brother of Hadi -- whom it had captured during the fighting over the past month, mediators said. 

Iran offered its help in bringing the sides back to the negotiating table.

"Positive developments in Yemen should be followed by urgent humanitarian assistance, intra-Yemeni dialogue and broad-based govt. Ready to help," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted from New York.

In a televised speech from his refuge in Riyadh, Hadi thanked the coalition for its support and refused to give up hope of returning from exile.

"We will soon return to our homeland, to Aden and Sanaa," he said.

He called on all sides to work to implement a resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council last week which imposed an arms embargo on the rebels but "which paves the way for positive and effective dialogue."