UN urges US, Houthis to halt all attacks

The United Nations on Sunday called on the US military and Yemen's Houthi fighters to cease "all military activity" after a new round of deadly strikes and threats of reprisal.

"We note with concern the launching of multiple strikes on Huthi-controlled areas in Yemen by the US overnight, which reportedly resulted in death and injuries," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Houthi fighters will target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues its attacks on Yemen, the group's leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said yesterday.

"If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation," he said in a televised speech, referring to the US attacks.

The strikes - which killed at least 31 people at the start of a campaign that one US official said might continue for weeks - are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The Houthis' political bureau described the attacks as a "war crime".

"Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation," it said in a statement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to urge an "immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue," Russia's foreign ministry said yesterday.

Lavrov's call to halt the strikes came as Trump has been pressing Moscow to sign a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, which Ukraine accepted last week, but Russia has said needs to be reworked.

Most of the 31 people confirmed killed in the US strikes were women and children, Anees al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry said in an updated toll yesterday. More than 100 were injured, he said.

Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a neighbourhood known to host several members of the Houthi leadership.

"The explosions were violent and shook the neighbourhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children," one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia, said.

In Sanaa, a crane and bulldozer were used to remove debris at one site and people used their bare hands to pick through the rubble. At a hospital, medics treated the injured, including children, and the bodies of several casualties, wrapped in plastic sheets, were placed in a yard, Reuters footage showed.