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UN says fighting stops in Yemen’s Sanaa

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GENEVA: Yemen’s capital Sanaa was quiet on Tuesday after five days of fighting that culminated in the death of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and UN and Red Cross flights have landed at the airport, the United Nations said on Tuesday.


Street battles in the capital had stopped despite 25 air strikes overnight, UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said.


Ansar Allah fighters moved to cement their grip on the capital on Tuesday after killing former president Saleh as he fled the city following the collapse of their uneasy alliance.


A least 234 people were killed and 400 wounded in those clashes, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday.


New checkpoints manned by rebels sprung up across Sanaa as their leaders hailed their control of the capital.


Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned on Tuesday that those attacking Yemen would regret it.


“The people of Yemen will make their aggressors regret their actions,” he said in a televised speech.


The commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Saleh was killed because he had been trying to overthrow the Ansar Allah.


The funeral of Saleh was expected later on Tuesday.


He was killed by his erstwhile Ansar Allah allies on Monday, two days after announcing he was switching sides in the war to oppose them.


A military source said the Ansar Allah had stopped their four-car convoy about 40 km south of Sanaa and shot dead Saleh and two other officials.


In a televised speech on Monday, Ansar Allah chief Abdul Malik al Huthi made no mention of Saleh’s death but expressed his satisfaction at the day’s events.


“Today marked the failure of the conspiracy and treason, a black day for the forces of aggression,” he said.


His family’s allies have battled the Ansar Allah since last week, a dramatic turn in a conflict that had been largely stalemated for much of the past three years.


The United Nations says a food shortage caused by warring parties blocking supplies has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.


Millions of people could die in one of the worst famines of modern times.


“People are now emerging from their houses after five days being locked down basically as prisoners,” McGoldrick told a regular UN briefing, speaking by phone from Sanaa.


“They are now seeking safety, moving their families in case things erupt again and at the same time seeking medical treatment and trying to pacify very terrified kids who have endured five days of relentless shelling, shooting and ground fire and air strikes.”


The air strikes overnight struck government buildings, palaces and bridges, and people were now bracing themselves in case of more fighting or air strikes, McGoldrick said, describing the situation as “very uncertain times”.


“We know the Saudi-led coalition has sent some messages to the people in Sanaa to stay away from Ansar Allah installations for fear of air strikes, so we are trying to wait and see when things become slightly more clear and we can move around more freely.”


A Saudi-led military coalition has been fighting on behalf of a government based in the south against the Ansar Allah that had teamed up with Saleh and controlled much of the country including the capital.


So far about 125 people are known to have died in the latest fighting in the capital with 200 injured, but aid workers are likely to have a better idea of the death toll later on Tuesday, McGoldrick said.


McGoldrick had no details of Saleh’s funeral later on Tuesday and did not know if it would coincide or clash with an event planned by the Ansar Allah to celebrate his killing.


He said there had been a report that there would be a ceremony around the main mosque, and the UN mission should avoid the area because of traffic.


— Agencies


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