Rebels accept US-backed ceasefire plan

Efforts for a ceasefire in Yemen after more than six weeks of Saudi-led air strikes gathered pace yesterday with rebels saying they would respond "positively" and their allies accepting a US-backed truce plan.

The renegade troops, who helped the Shia Huthi rebels seize much of the country, said they had agreed to the five-day humanitarian truce that Riyadh has offered starting from Tuesday.

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The rebels themselves made no explicit reference to the Saudi offer but expressed "readiness to deal positively with any efforts, calls or measures that would help end the suffering."

The truce moves came as the United Nations expressed deep concern about the civilian death toll from the bombing campaign and the humanitarian impact of the air and sea blockade that Saudi Arabia and its allies have imposed on its impoverished neighbour.

Coalition warplanes pounded the rebels' stronghold of Saada in the northern mountains for a second straight night on Saturday after declaring the whole province a military target despite aid agency pleas to spare trapped civilians.

They also carried out twin strikes on the Sanaa residence of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is accused of orchestrating the alliance between renegade army units and the rebels.

"Following mediation from friendly countries to establish a humanitarian truce... we announce our agreement," said Colonel Sharaf Luqman, spokesman for the army defectors.

The defectors' bases have been a major target of the coalition air campaign in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi that the United Nations says has killed more than 1,400 people, many of them civilians.

The rebels welcomed efforts by "friendly countries to end the aggression and the suffering of the Yemeni people."