REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ADEN -- Up to 100 people were killed in Monday's Saudi-led coalition forces' intensified air bombings on missiles warehouse and arms depots in Yemen's capital Sanaa, medics said on Tuesday, hours before a planned five-day cease-fire for humanitarian purposes, which a government source said will happen with weak chance.
"The latest reports show that up to 100 people were killed while nearly 300 others injured due to Monday's massive blasts caused by the Saudi-led airstrikes on arms depots," directors of four major hospitals in Sanaa confirmed to Xinhua.
"Hundreds of injured people have been taken to different hospitals in Sanaa. The number of casualties may rise as many injured were in critical condition with no sufficient medical care due to shortages of medicines," Tamim, a senior medical official, told Xinhua by phone.
Yemen's official Saba News Agency, controlled by the Shiite Houthi group, confirmed Monday's death toll in a brief text message obtained by Xinhua.
On Monday evening, the Saudi-led coalition attacked a missile warehouse in Nuqom Mountain in eastern parts of Sanaa, causing a series of intensive explosions that badly damaged nearby houses and forced thousands of families to flee their homes located there.
The Shiite Houthi group, backed by army units, and tribal militia loyal to Yemeni President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who have been battling over the control of several Yemeni cities for the past six weeks, have all pledged to respect the truce in order to allow needed humanitarian aid to reach besieged civilians inside the conflict-battered country.
However, warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition continued airstrikes against several military bases controlled by Houthis around Sanaa and other provinces on Tuesday, hours before a planned five-day cease-fire for humanitarian purposes is due to come into effect.
A high-ranking Yemeni government official told Xinhua that "the planned humanitarian ceasefire is still due to go ahead tonight at 11 p.m. Sanaa time as planned, but some fear the latest ongoing Saudi-led airstrikes and armed confrontations in various places could scupper it."
"Unfortunately, the chances of the humanitarian pause are weak. Till now, there is no serious cooperation between all the concerned parties in Yemen only escalation noticed," the government source who asked to remain anonymous said.
On Tuesday, the newly appointed UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, arrived in Sanaa where he is expected to meet with the country's political parties and leaders of the Houthi group to discuss the full implementation of the cease-fire, according to Yemeni officials.
Hours after the arrival of the Mauritanian UN envoy to Yemen, about five Saudi-led airstrikes bombed Tuesday afternoon a Houthi- controlled historical castle and two military bases in Yemen's southern province of Taiz, where intense fighting is still ongoing between the two-warring sides.
Scores of people were either killed or injured due to the latest airstrikes and armed clashes taking place in Taiz, a local resident said, adding that the casualties were shifted to hospitals by ambulances and military vehicles.
Witnesses said two huge blasts followed the Saudi-led air bombings also damaged residential buildings, vehicles and shops near the site.
In the northern province of Saada, the main stronghold of Houthis, more than seven Saudi-led airstrikes targeted houses of some mid-level commanders of the group, with no immediate reports of casualties.
Conflict and armed confrontations between Houthi gunmen and pro-Hadi militiamen escalated in many battlefields in Aden's southern port city of Aden in an apparent attempt to seize more sites on ground before the start of a planned five-day humanitarian pause.
Saudi Arabia, along with eight other Arab states, have been bombing the Houthi group and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh since March 26, aiming to reinstate the government of Hadi, who was forced to flee the country.
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