Country asks UN for quick ground force intervention

Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations is asking the international community to quickly intervene with ground forces to save the country from Houthi rebels who have been targeted by Saudi-led airstrikes for weeks.

A letter sent on Wednesday to the president of the UN Security Council also urges human rights organizations to document what Ambassador Khaled Alyemany described as the Houthis' "barbaric violations against a defenseless population".

The call for the use of ground forces comes as the international community instead is urging an immediate cease-fire, or at least humanitarian pauses, to deliver aid to civilians trapped in the fighting.

More than 50 civilians, including women and children, were killed when Saudi-led airstrikes hit their boat as they were fleeing fighting in the port city of Aden, the letter said.

And the new UN envoy to Yemen set off for the region on Wednesday, with talks planned with Yemen's president on Thursday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, as a fresh attempt at brokered peace talks begins. US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday to seek a pause in the Yemen fighting.

The fighting has turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which backs the Houthis. The UN human rights office says at least 646 civilians have been killed in Yemen since the airstrikes began on March 26. At least 300,000 people have been displaced.

Alyemany did not immediately comment, and it was not clear what kind of land forces his country seeks.

The Saudi-led airstrikes began two days after Yemen sent the council a similar letter asking it to authorize a military intervention to oust the Houthis and asked members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council for immediate help.

The spokeswoman for the current council president, Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, confirmed that the ambassador had received the new letter but said the council so far was not scheduled to discuss it on Thursday.

AP - AFP