AL MUKALLA, Yemen — Warplanes of the Saudi-led military coalition bombed targets in the Yemeni capital on Sunday for the first time since Saudi officials said they were shifting the focus of their campaign against a Yemeni rebel group toward political negotiations and humanitarian relief.
Also on Sunday, at least seven people were killed and dozens wounded in escalating violence in the southern city of Taiz, which was emerging as the latest lethal flash point in Yemen’s civil war.
In addition to the bombings in Sana, the capital, which struck a military base and the presidential palace, the coalition carried out airstrikes in several other provinces, suggesting a broadening, rather than a scaling back, of the monthlong Saudi air offensive against Houthi rebels.
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Despite vague talk of negotiations last week, there was little sign that any of the combatants in Yemen’s conflict were preparing to halt the fighting. Rather, the violence heightened in recent days as it became more apparent that the warring parties were locked in a standoff, with the Saudis insisting that the Houthis retreat and the Houthis demanding an unconditional end to the airstrikes.
Saudi Arabia said the military operation was intended to shake the grip of the Houthis on crucial Yemeni cities and to restore the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was forced from power and into exile, by the Houthis this year.
But the air campaign has killed scores of civilians and earned derision from critics in Yemen and abroad who have called it strategically incoherent for failing to either dislodge the Houthis and their allies or to force them to negotiate.
Nonetheless, Saudi officials asserted last week that the campaign, which they called Operation Decisive Storm, had achieved its objectives and that they would shift from military operations to a political process. But on Sunday, a senior Yemeni official, Riyadh Yaseen, who serves as the foreign minister for the Saudi-backed exiled government, said the first operation had “not ended.â€
“There will be no deal with the Houthis whatsoever until they withdraw from areas under their control,†Mr. Yaseen said, speaking in London, according to Reuters.
More than 1,000 people have been killed over the past month, including at least 500 civilians, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of people have been killed in Aden, Yemen’s second largest city, which has been devastated by factional street fighting for more than a month.
There are growing fears that Taiz, a densely populated city northwest of Aden, is suffering the same fate as clashes there intensify. The city has already experienced severe shortages of fuel and food, residents said.
As in Aden, local forces were fighting against an alliance of the Houthis and heavily armed security units loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s former autocratic president.
Taiz was a focal point of the nationwide uprising against Mr. Saleh in 2011 that led to a deal brokered by Persian Gulf nations that removed him from power. Residents said the local militias opposing the Houthi and Saleh forces now include many young people who participated in the protests four years ago.
A prominent, longtime opponent of Mr. Saleh, Sheik Hamoud Saeed al-Mikhlafi, was said to be leading the opposition to Mr. Saleh’s forces in Taiz.
As they meet fierce resistance in the city, the Houthis and their allies have been accused by residents of deploying deadly and frequently indiscriminate force. Witnesses said that on Sunday, the Houthis unleashed barrages of mortar shells that struck at least one hospital.
Ali al-Sirari, a local human rights activist, said the shelling by the Houthis came after they were forced to retreat. They “hysterically shelled many areas in the city with tanks,†he said. Residents said at least seven people, including three children, were killed.
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