Local Editor
The UN envoy to Yemen said he was "alarmed" over the escalation of violence after a Houthi drone attack on the country's largest airbase killed six Hadi loyalist soldiers.
In tweets posted overnight Thursday Martin Griffiths urged all parties to Yemen's protracted conflict to exercise restraint.
The Houthi revolutionaries said they carried out the strike which hit a military parade at Al-Anad air base, in Lahij province some 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Yemen's second city Aden.
Six Hadi loyalist soldiers were killed and at least 12 people wounded, including top commanders, medics said.
The attack comes as the UN, which brokered several agreements between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed resigned regime at talks in Sweden last month, is desperately seeking to relaunch negotiations for an end to four years of devastating conflict.
Griffiths tweeted that he was "alarmed by today's (Thursday) escalation of violence in Yemen".
He urged "all parties to the conflict to exercise restraint and refrain from further escalation" and to "create a conducive environment to maintain the positive momentum generated" in Sweden.
The UN was hoping last month's talks in Sweden would help launch formal peace talks between Yemen's warring parties.
Thursday's attack is likely to create a new obstacle for those efforts.
In Sweden, the warring sides agreed truce deals for the key rebel-held aid port of Hodeida and for battleground third city Taiz.
The war between the Houthis and resigned Hadi regime escalated in March 2015. Former Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled into Saudi exile and asked Saudi-led coalition to intervene to forcefully bring him back to power.
The conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people and pushed some 14 million Yemenis to the brink of famine in the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
