Yemeni Crisis

A Russian fighter jet came into close proximity with a U.S. air force jet over Syria on Oct. 10 to identify it, "not to scare it," Russia's state ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the defense ministry as saying on Oct. 14. 

The ministry said its SU-30CM jet was within 2-3 kilometers of the U.S. plane. 

A suspected Saudi-led air strike killed at least 13 people at a wedding in a rebel-held town in Yemen, witnesses and the rebels said Oct. 8, even as UN peace efforts made headway.

Six months of violence in Yemen has left at least 505 children dead, 702 injured and more than 1.7 million at risk of malnutrition, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Oct. 2.

"Across the country, nearly 10 million children -- 80 percent of the country's under-18 population -- need urgent humanitarian assistance," UNICEF said in a statement.

A Saudi brigadier general has died in hospital of wounds incurred on the border with Yemen, the armed forces said. 

Ibrahim Omar Ibrahim Hamzi, deputy commander of the 8th brigade in Saudi Arabia's southern Jizan province, was injured "defending the nation and its citizens," the statement said, without providing any details. 

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi landed in Aden on Sept.22, airport sources said, the first time he had been in the southern port city since he left for Saudi Arabia as Houthi fighters closed in on it in March. 

Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels have released six foreigners whom they were holding hostage and they are flying out of the country's capital Sanaa, airport officials and Houthi officials said on Sept.20. 

The United Nations on Sept. 10 said peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Yemen are set to resume next week in the region and urged all parties to participate "in good faith." 

As many as 800 Egyptian soldiers arrived in Yemen late on Sept.8, Egyptian security sources said, swelling the ranks of a Gulf Arab military contingent which aims to rout the Iran-allied Houthi group after a five-month civil war. 

It was the first reported deployment of ground troops there by Egypt, which has one of the Arab world's strongest armies. 

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said 45 of its soldiers fighting rebels in Yemen were killed in an arms depot blast on Sept. 4, while five border guards from Bahrain died in the deadliest day yet for the Saudi-led coalition.
  

The Yemeni army has recruited 4,800 southern fighters following a presidential decision to integrate loyalist militiamen who helped push Iran-backed rebels out of second city Aden, a military official said Aug. 28.