RIYADH - A top Saudi commander and an Emirati officer were killed in Yemen Monday during Arab coalition operations against Iran-backed rebels, the Riyadh-led alliance said.
Saudi Colonel Abdullah al-Sahyan and Emirati officer Sultan al-Kitbi were killed at dawn on Monday "while they were carrying out their duties in supervising operations to liberate Taez" province in Yemen's southwest, the official SPA news agency said.
A Yemeni officer told AFP that both officers were killed when rebels fired a rocket at a coastal road in the strategic province, which overlooks the Bab al-Mandab Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The rebels claimed in a statement on their sabanews.net website that they have fired a Tochka missile against "a command centre run by the enemy" in the Bab al-Mandab area. The rebels claimed the attack caused "many losses in lives and military equipment," including Apache helicopters, among the Saudi-led coalition ranks. AFP could not immediately confirm these claims from other sources.
The coalition has been battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen since March, and has provided loyalist forces with troops and equipment as well as carrying out air strikes on insurgent positions.
Sahyan on Saturday met Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi who awarded him with a medal of courage, according to Yemen's official sabanew.net. He was identified as commander of the Saudi forces in provisional capital Aden, where Hadi is based.
The United Arab Emirates, playing a key role in the Saudi-led coalition, confirmed the death of its officer without specifying his rank.
In early September, a similar rebel missile strike on a coalition base in Yemen's eastern Marib province killed 67 coalition soldiers, most of them Emiratis.
Meanwhile, Yemen's warring factions are set to observe a ceasefire starting Monday at midnight, the government said, despite growing signs of mutual mistrust on the eve of UN-brokered peace talks.
The truce announcement came as the Arab coalition that has been leading the war against Iran-backed rebels since March said a senior Saudi commander and an Emirati officer were killed during operations in Yemen.
A lull in fighting is sorely needed in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest nation, where an estimated 80 percent of the population requires humanitarian aid.
Militants, including the Islamic State group, have exploited the violence, gaining ground and carrying out deadly attacks against both sides of the conflict.
The Saudi-led coalition and rebel forces have yet to say if they will abide by the ceasefire agreement, despite reassurement last week by the UN envoy that Riyadh had promised to pause its aerial assault during talks.
Mueen Abdulmalek, a member of the coalition-backed government's delegation at peace talks, told AFP that the ceasefire will start at midnight local time (2100 GMT).
"We hope the militias will commit to the ceasefire this time," he said, referring to the rebels.
A presidency official confirmed the truce was agreed by President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
Yemen's conflict has pitted local forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in support of Hadi's government against the Huthis and renegade troops still loyal to wealthy ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Previous UN efforts have failed to narrow differences, and past ceasefires haven't held.
The government said last week that the ceasefire, coinciding with open-ended talks beginning at an undisclosed location in Switzerland on Tuesday, would last seven days and is renewable.
Reports of the truce were overshadowed Monday by the death of Saudi Colonel Abdullah al-Sahyan and Emirati officer Sultan al-Kitbi, who died while supervising operations "to liberate" the southwestern Taez province, according to a coalition statement.
A Yemeni military source told AFP that both officers were killed when rebels fired a rocket at a coastal road in Taez, which overlooks the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Fierce fighting between the rebels and pro-Hadi forces continued on Monday in the southern Daleh province, witnesses said.
Both pro-Hadi forces and insurgent groups have traded barbs over each side's willingness to stick to the truce. And there has been no word from Saleh or his General People's Congress party, which is represented at the Switzerland talks.
The warring sides have agreed to talks despite protracted differences, including over UN Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls for rebels to withdraw from key cities and surrender their weapons.
The government and its Gulf allies say the resolution is a prerequisite for peace.
According to the UN envoy, talks will focus on four main areas, including the terms of a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of armed groups from areas they control.
The Huthis, who have long complained of marginalisation, advanced in September 2014 from their northern strongholds before occupying government buildings in Sanaa.
They later encroached on second city Aden, forcing Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia.
Hadi returned last month and declared Aden his provisional capital.
Under cover of coalition warplanes and backed by Arab soldiers and heavy weaponry, pro-government forces have recaptured four southern provinces, as well as Aden, since July.
The United Nations says more than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen, about half of them civilians, and more than 27,000 wounded since March.