Sanaa, December 13

At least 44 people have been killed in Saudi-led coalition air raids and fighting between Yemeni loyalists and rebels ahead of a possible ceasefire, medical and military sources said today.

The latest deaths come ahead of UN-brokered peace talks set to take place between the warring parties in Switzerland on Tuesday.

Air strikes by the Arab coalition on the Haradh area of the northern province of Hajja hit six homes, witnesses said. “We received the bodies of 12 civilians and more than 20 others were wounded,” an official at a field hospital in Haradh said.

In the south, 12 rebels were killed when loyalist artillery hit two rebel vehicles near the city of Damt, which the Huthis and their allies captured in November, military sources said. In the same area, nine rebels and four pro-government fighters were killed in clashes late on Saturday, the sources said. Further west, coalition warplanes early today struck a rebel military convoy between the strategic Taez province and Lahj in the south, killing seven people.