Heavy fighting in Yemen despite UN truce announcement

Arab coalition air strikes and heavy shelling between warring factions shook several cities in Yemen, despite a UN humanitarian truce which took effect just before midnight.   Saturday's pause in the fighting was meant to last a week to allow aid deliveries to the country's 21 million, most of who are in need of humanitarian help. Air raids pounded Houthi and Yemeni army units in the capital Sanaa and in the embattled southern cities of Taiz and Aden, where residents also reported intense artillery exchanges between the fighters and local militiamen, according to Reuters news agency. In Aden, one of the country's most deprived and war-torn areas, witnesses said Houthi forces fired mortars and Katyusha rockets at opposition fighters based in northern areas and around the city's international airport. Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, a spokesman of the Saudi military which is leading the Arab coalition, earlier said the coalition needed to know that the Houthis would respect the truce and what the terms of breaching the agreement were. Houthi leader Abdelmalik al-Houthi said the truce had to be conditional "on the commitment of the regime and their mercenaries".   Al Jazeera