Yemen war sides fail to operate 1st flight as part of truce

By AHMED AL-HAJ and SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s warring parties have failed to operate the first commercial flight in six years from the rebel-held capital, in a blow to an already fragile truce in the country’s grinding conflict. The flight to Amman, Jordan, had been planned as part of the U.N.-brokered, 60-day truce agreement that the internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels struck earlier this month. The truce, which went into effect on April 2, is the first nationwide cease-fire in Yemen in six years. It came amid concerted international and regional efforts to find a settlement to the conflict that devastated the Arab World’s poorest country and pushed it to the brink of famine.