23 killed in fresh Saudi air raids in Yemen

ADEN: At least 23 Yemeni rebels were killed in fresh Saudi-led coalition air strikes on Thursday on their positions in the southern town of Daleh, a government official there said.
In Yemen’s third city of Taez, meanwhile, a Red Cross official said his team retrieved the bodies of 10 pro-government soldiers thought to have died when rebels overran a loyalist base there on Wednesday. The official said there were more bodies but that the Red Cross team was being denied access to the site by the Houthi rebels in the area.
Several rebel positions in schools and public buildings were “razed” by air strikes in Daleh as well as in the nearby province of Lahj, said Nasser al-Shuaibi, a leader of armed groups loyal to Hadi.
A government official in Daleh said 23 Houthis were killed, but the Houthis rarely acknowledge their losses and the toll could not be verified from other sources. Earlier, Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched new strikes in Yemen on Thursday despite a demand by rebels for a complete halt to the raids as a condition for the UN-sponsored peace talks.
The regional alliance declared an end to the first phase of its operations against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and their allies, but vowed to keep hitting them with targeted bombing when necessary.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon meanwhile informed the Security Council that he planned to appoint Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as his new envoy to Yemen. Cheikh Ahmed replaces Morocco’s Jamal Benomar, who resigned last week after losing support from Gulf countries for his mediation efforts. After the end of Operation Decisive Storm, the coalition said the campaign would enter a phase dubbed Operation Renewal of Hope focusing on resuming political talks, aid deliveries and “fighting terrorism”. “The Houthis should be under no illusion that we will use force in order to stop them taking over Yemen by aggressive actions so, that will not change,” Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
The alliance said it had destroyed the rebels’ missile and air capabilities, but the Houthis and their allies still control the capital, Sanaa, and swathes of the country while Hadi remains in self-exile in Riyadh.The rebels on Wednesday called for a complete halt to the air raids so warring parties could return to the negotiating table. On Thursday, they targeted Yarim in Ibb province, where warplanes hit an old university building used as a rebel headquarters, residents said. A newly announced division of the Islamic State jihadist group also claimed a bombing in Yarim on Wednesday that it said had killed five rebels. In a message on Twitter, the “Green Brigade” said it had struck a Houthi vehicle. In the southern provinces of Lahj and Daleh, five rebel positions in schools and public buildings were “razed” by air strikes, a pro-Hadi armed committees leader said. In Aden, warplanes hit rebel positions and clashes raged between pro-and anti-Hadi forces, witnesses said.