UN says civilian death toll in Yemen rises above 1,600

Relatives of a man who was killed from Saudi airstrikes, mourn after they uncovered his lifeless body from rubble of houses destroyed, in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, July 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

BERLIN -- At least 142 civilians have been killed in Yemen over the past 10 days, bringing the civilian death toll in more than three months of violence to 1,670, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Air strikes and ground fighting have continued despite a UN-brokered truce between Shiite rebels known as Houthis and Yemen's internationally backed exiled government and its allies. A Saudi-led coalition that in March began launching airstrikes against the rebels has said it isn't bound by the truce because of a lack of commitment by the Houthis.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN human rights office, said in Geneva that at least 142 civilians were killed in Yemen between July 3 and Monday and another 224 were injured. That included a total of 76 deaths and 38 injuries in a pair of airstrikes on markets July 6.

The latest numbers bring the total killed since March 26 to 1,670, while 3,829 civilians have been injured, Colville said.

Separately, the UN refugee agency said that some 10,500 people have arrived in Yemen by sea since March 26 -- bringing to over 37,000 the total so far this year, among them Ethiopians, Somalis and others. Many have been tricked into making the crossing by smugglers who told them the conflict in Yemen is over, it said.

Information campaigns are planned in the Somali regions of Puntland and Somaliland and other areas to discourage people from crossing, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

The agency added that nearly 1.27 million Yemenis are now displaced within their own country, while more than 51,000 people have fled Yemen for Djibouti, Somalia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.