Six people were killed on Monday by artillery -- fired both by forces loyal to Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and by the Shia Houthi militant group and its allies in Yemen's southwestern Taiz province. In an online statement, Colonel Mansour al-Hassani, an army spokesman in Taiz, said the Houthis and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh had violated a ceasefire agreement by firing artillery at military targets in Taiz, killing at least one soldier. Al-Hassani added that the army and pro-Hadi "popular resistance" forces had retaliated with their own artillery barrage, killing five Houthi fighters. Ongoing UN-backed peace talks in Kuwait stalled on Saturday, with UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed suspending direct talks between Yemeni government and Houthi representatives. Yemen has been racked by chaos and bloodshed since late 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh. In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi's embattled government. According to UN figures, the ongoing conflict has led to the death of some 6,400 Yemenis to date and forced some 2.5 million to flee their homes.
