SANAA // Saudi-led coalition warplanes launched fresh air strikes against Shiite rebels across Yemen on Wednesday despite international concerns, while Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted missiles fired from Yemen.

The coalition resumed strikes days after UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait between representatives of the government and the Iran-backed Huthi rebels ended without a breakthrough.

The coalition, which has been battling to prop up Yemen’s government against the Houthis since March 2015, hit rebel positions across northern Yemen, according to coalition officials and tribal sources. The previous day, the coalition ended a three-month moratorium and resumed hitting targets around the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which is held by rebels.

The decision to recommence air strikes has alarmed the UN.

“The secretary-general is deeply concerned about reports of increased fighting between various parties in Hajjah, Saada and Sanaa provinces including over the past few days,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

“The reported escalation in fighting exacerbates the already dire humanitarian and human rights situation and the suffering of the Yemeni people.”

However, coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri said renewed coalition strikes in Yemen were justified after the failure of negotiations and a series of rebel violations of a three-month truce.

Foreign Minister Abdulmalek Al-Mikhlafi, head of the government’s delegation to the Kuwait talks, accused the rebels of escalating the situation to make the negotiations fail.

At a news conference in Riyadh, he castigated the Houthis and forces loyal to their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, for creating their own so-called governing council for Yemen., which he branded “unconstitutional”.

The UN says more than 6,400 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Yemen since the coalition air campaign began last March.

The fighting has also driven 2.8 million people from their homes and left more than 80 per cent of the population needing humanitarian aid.

Iran, which Riyadh accuses of supporting the Huthis, denounced the international community’s “inaction” while Saudi Arabia carried out what it called “atrocities” against Yemenis.

The missiles fired from Yemen and intercepted by Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning were headed towards two southern towns in the kingdom. Clashes also flared between coalition forces and the insurgents close to the Saudi border, Fierce fighting was also reported between government forces and Houthi rebels in Haradh, which borders the southern Saudi province of Jazan.

* Agence France Presse