Saudi-led coalition says it exchanged POW visits with Yemen's Houthis

Two delegations from the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen and the Iran-aligned Houthis exchanged visits to prisoners of war on Wednesday as a gesture of goodwill and a confidence-building measure to extend the truce in Yemen, the coalition said in a statement carried by the Saudi state news agency SPA.

The statement quoted spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki as saying "this visit is humanitarian in nature ... and comes as one of the gains of the truce as we seek to extend it."

Yemen's truce extension: Relative calm but elusive peace

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The United Nations is pressing for an extended and expanded truce that would build on the two-month one that expired on October 2 after being rolled over twice, and which has brought the longest stretch of relative calm in the seven-year conflict.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognized government from the capital, Sanaa. The group says it is fighting a corrupt system and foreign aggression.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands and caused a dire humanitarian crisis that has pushed millions into hunger.

(Reuters)