Saudi-Led Warplanes Raid Rebel Positions in Yemen

Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition pounded rebel positions in central Yemen on Thursday as air raids intensified amid attempts to revive U.N.-proposed talks in Switzerland, witnesses said.

Jets targeted positions held by Shiite Huthi rebels and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in the city of Taez.

Several rebel posts were hit, the witnesses said.

Warplanes also targeted arms depots at the Hamza military base in Ibb province, they said, and air raids also hit a Huthi base in Dhamar province.

Thursday's raids followed a night of intensive air strikes against rebels in Taez and coastguard positions in Hodeida in western Yemen, as well as Huthi positions in their northern stronghold of Saada.

Overnight strikes pounded rebels in Aden, the scene of fierce fighting since the insurgents advanced on the southern port city where President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi took refuge after fleeing rebel house arrest in Sanaa in February.

Hadi is now in Riyadh which with nine other Arab countries put together a coalition that began air strikes in Yemen on March 26, aiming to restore him to power.

Talks proposed by the United Nations in Geneva were postponed days before they were due to start on May 28 after the U.N. failed to convince the warring parties to attend.

U.N. envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has now tentatively set June 14 for Geneva talks between all parties to the conflict.

He told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Yemen's government is ready to go to Geneva but that the rebels have yet to confirm they will attend.

The talks would be aimed at securing a ceasefire, agreeing on a withdrawal plan for the Huthis and stepping up deliveries of humanitarian aid, according to diplomats who attended the closed-door briefing.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict since late March.