By Murad al-Arifi

SANAA 

At least three civilians were killed on Tuesday when a mortar shell fired by Houthi rebels struck a residential part of Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz, according to a local military source.

The source, who spoke to Anadolu Agency anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media, said the shell had killed three people -- and injured six more -- in the city’s Saina district.

According to the same source, the attack ended a days-long period of relative calm in Taiz between Yemen’s warring rivals.

Anadolu Agency was unable to obtain immediate comment from Houthi spokesmen regarding the military source’s assertions.

While most of Taiz remains under the control of Yemeni government forces, the Houthis have maintained a siege on the city for the last three years.

In mid-2016, government forces briefly managed to break the siege by capturing the city’s southwestern Al-Dabab district.

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at shoring up the country’s pro-Saudi government.

The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait failed to end the destructive conflict.

The violence has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.