Riyadh - Saudi artillery pounded positions inside Yemen after renewed rocket fire wounded four women on Sunday, in the lead-up to a proposed ceasefire with Yemeni rebels, the Saudi-led coalition said.
In an interview with AFP, coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri said Saudi-led forces will continue retaliating against targets over the border until the 11:00 pm Tuesday ceasefire, "if they continue to fire their rockets towards our cities, our population".
He also defended the coalition against suggestions by aid groups that its aerial bombing has been "indiscriminate".
Saudi Arabia announced the ceasefire date on Friday after more than six weeks of bombing Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, but said the rebels will also have to abide by it.
At the same time, the coalition conducted a record number of sorties -- more than 130 from Friday to Saturday -- after declaring the rebels had crossed a "red line" by their deadly mortar and rocket bombardments of Saudi Arabia last week.
On Sunday, four Katyusha rockets hit a house in the Saudi border region of Najran, wounding four women and sparking return artillery fire from Najran and neighbouring Jazan districts, Assiri told AFP.
"They are continuing now" with the retaliatory fire, he said.
Shells from Yemen last week killed several people in the border region, the first attacks on populated areas of the kingdom since the coalition on March 26 began air strikes aiming to stop an advance by the Shia Huthi rebels.
In a clear reference to the Saudi-proposed truce, Huthi television on Sunday said the rebels have agreed to respond "positively" to efforts to "end the suffering" in Yemen.
AFP
