Ground fighting and Saudi-led airstrikes targeting Yemen's Shi'ite rebels have killed nearly 100 people as negotiators in neighbouring Oman tried to reach a truce, Yemeni security officials say.
They said on Wednesday representatives of the southern separatist movement were meeting with the rebels, known as Huthis, in the Omani capital, Muscat.
A delegation from the party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key ally of the rebels, was also headed to Moscow to meet Russian officials, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to reporters.
The fighting in Yemen pits the Huthis and allied troops loyal to Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is now based in Saudi Arabia. The rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, in September.
A day earlier, the rebels and some other political parties sent a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, thanking him for his efforts despite inconclusive peace talks in Geneva last week. They urged the UN to intervene to stop the Saudi-led airstrikes.
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Fierce fighting kicked off at dawn in the cities of Ibb, Aden, Taiz, Marib, Dhale and the Huthi stronghold of Saada, killing nearly 100 people, many civilians, the officials said.
In Aden dozens of shells fell on densely populated neighbourhoods, while artillery duels shook the city of Taiz.
Also on Wednesday, an International Committee of the Red Cross ship carrying 1000 tonnes of food and generators from Oman docked in Yemen's Hodeida port.
