A military vehicle is stationed outside the al-Saleh mosque in Sanaa, yesterday. Yemeni forces have surrounded the sprawling mosque complex in the capital Sanaa since several days in an attempt to wrest it from the backers of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
AFP/Sanaa
Yemeni warplanes supported troops battling Shia Huthi rebels north of Sanaa Friday as fighting intensified, with dozens killed in 48 hours, officials and tribal chiefs said.
The violence in Amran province comes despite President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi warning against a military escalation.
The latest fighting with Huthi rebels, also known as Ansarullah, erupted on Sunday, ending an 11-day truce agreed after mediation backed by United Nations envoy Jamal Benomar.
Warplanes launched at least eight air raids on Friday to try to break the rebels' grip on army positions, some of which are just 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Sanaa, local government officials and tribal chiefs said.
"The fighting has killed dozens on both sides in the past 48 hours," a tribal source said, without giving a more precise toll.
The army hammered rebel positions in Hamdan, Bani Matar and Iyal Sreih in Amran province with artillery, local officials said.
And the air force targeted Bani Maymun and Bani Zubayr, while army convoys carrying reinforcements were seen leaving the capital and heading for Amran.
A government official accused the rebels of trying to take the strategic Jabal al-Dhafir mountain at the northwestern exit of Sanaa in a bid to cut the road connecting the capital to the western coastal city of Hodeida.
Hadi had warned against further escalations in the province in comments reported by state media.