Saudi airstrikes kill 15 on Hudaydah-Sana'a highway

At least 15 people have lost their lives in fresh air raids conducted by Saudi warplanes on a strategic road linking the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah to the capital, Sana'a.

The al-Masirah television network affiliated to Yemen's Ansarullah movement reported that more than 20 people had also been injured in the aerial assaults on the Kilo 16 highway.

Over the past few days, fighting has intensified between Ansarullah fighters and Saudi-backed militants around the critical highway, through which humanitarian aid is delivered to the Yemeni people.

Amanda Brydon, humanitarian policy adviser at Save the Children NGO, expressed concerns about fresh tensions in Yemen.

"What we are seeing with the fighting is [that] the critical junction at Kilo 16 is the artery towards Sana'a and other parts of the country," she told Al Jazeera.

Hudaydah, she said, is a lifeline for the rest of the country, where over 80 percent of the country's commercial imports come through.

In another development, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths held talks with a Houthi delegation, led by spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam, in the Omani capital, Muscat. 

During the meeting, Griffiths was briefed on the Houthis' reasons for their absence from the latest round of the peace talks in the Swiss city of Geneva, Yemen's official SABA news agency reported.

The Muscat discussions, the report said, also covered "necessary measures" needed for negotiations "as soon as possible" between Yemen's warring sides.

SS