Saudi Arabia pledged today to cover the entire $274 million in humanitarian aid sought by the UN for conflict-torn Yemen, which has also been the target of Saudi-led air strikes against Shiite rebels.
The United Nations says hundreds of people have died and thousands of families fled their homes in the war, which has also killed six Saudi security personnel in border skirmishes.
At least 27 more people died in the southwestern city of Taez during overnight clashes between loyalist forces and the Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels as well as Saudi-led coalition air raids, medical sources said.
The kingdom "stands with its Yemeni brothers" and hopes for "the restoration of security and stability," the state Saudi Press Agency said, quoting an official statement.
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Aid has only trickled into the country, largely because of restrictions imposed by the coalition on the country's air space and sea ports.
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Explosions, gunfire
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Residents said explosions and gunfire shook Taez overnight during fighting between Hadi loyalists and the rebels.
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Rival fighters also clashed Friday night in districts of Aden, the main southern city, residents and security sources said.
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The Yemen conflict has sent tensions soaring between Saudi Arabia and Iran the foremost Sunni and Shiite Muslim powers in the Middle East, respectively.
Tehran is a key ally of the Huthis but denies arming them.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that his country's military should not be seen as a threat in the Middle East.
The presence of Iranian navy ships "in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden is intended to ensure the security of neighbouring countries and maritime traffic," he said in an Army Day ceremony.
On Friday, Iran submitted a four-point Yemen peace plan to UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
It calls for a ceasefire and immediate end to all foreign military attacks, the urgent delivery of humanitarian and medical aid, a resumption of political talks and the formation of a national unity government.
"It is imperative for the international community to get more effectively involved in ending the senseless aerial attacks and establishing a ceasefire," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in a letter to Ban.
No early end
In Riyadh, coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri said late Friday that "from this afternoon we have started operations in Taez".
There had been 100 sorties in Yemen on Thursday, he said, indicating no early end to the operation.
"This works needs patience, persistence and precision. We are not in a hurry... We have the time and we have the capabilities."
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said opposing forces in the southern city of Lahej, near Aden, had endangered a hospital.
"Fighters on both sides in Lahej have unlawfully put a hospital in the middle of a battle," said Joe Stork, the watchdog's deputy Middle East and North Africa director.
Yemen is also a front line in the US war on Al-Qaeda, which has exploited the growing turmoil to expand its control of areas in the southeast of the deeply tribal Arabian Peninsula country.
On Friday, Al-Qaeda overran a key army camp in the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla, seizing heavy weapons and consolidating its grip on the city, an official and residents said.
The World Health Organization, in its latest toll, said 767 people have died in Yemen's war since March 19 and more than 2,900 were wounded. The majority have been civilians.
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