The Houthi group denied the government accusations, saying it was the other side that violated the temporary truce.
"The Shiite rebels continued to carry out military operations despite the cease-fire and attacked our positions across Yemen. Houthis breached the cease-fire by shelling multiple areas of Taiz province just minutes after its declaration," the government official in Yemen`s Presidency said on condition of anonymity.
"Houthi militias and their allies attempted to take advantage of the cease-fire to advance militarily on the ground and move or mobilize more reinforcements to other fighting fronts in the south," the government source said.
He further accused pro-Houthi forces of launching well-planned armed attacks on army barracks in the oil-rich northern province of Marib on Tuesday evening, trying to retake control over some areas the group lost previously.
About 16 army soldiers were killed and the leader of the 3rd Regional Military Command in Marib was injured during the armed confrontations with Houthi rebels on the first day of cease-fire, according to the government official.
The military spokesperson of the Shiite Houthi group, for his part, denied the government accusations, saying that the "the aggression countries and Saudi-led mercenaries were the ones who violated the UN-brokered cease-fire several times."
The spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Sharaf Luqman, told the Houthis-affiliated AlMasirah TV channel that "warplanes of the Saudi aggression alliance violated the truce and carried out air raids against Yemeni provinces, killing several people."
Early on Wednesday, local residents in the Houthis-controlled political capital of Yemen, Sanaa, said that several Saudi-led warplanes were spotted by local residents hovering over the city.
The cease-fire, which went into effect Tuesday afternoon, coincided with the start of UN-sponsored peace talks in Switzerland between the two warring sides.
The talks, facilitated by the United Nations, aim at finding a durable settlement to the Yemeni crisis, including establishing a permanent cease-fire and a peaceful and orderly political transition in the country.
The latest talks in Switzerland followed several earlier rounds of consultations that had failed to reach an agreement.
UN agencies estimate that 82 percent of the Yemeni population are currently in need of humanitarian aid.
The impoverished Arab country was plunged into violence in September 2014 when the Shiite Houthi group invaded the country`s capital Sanaa, driving President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile.
The conflict soon turned into an all-out civil war between pro-government forces and Houthi rebels backed by troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, followed by the intervention of a Saudi-led Arab coalition vowing to restore the legitimate government of Hadi.
The almost daily air raids by the Saudi-led alliance and fighting on the ground have killed thousands of Yemeni civilians and forced many others flee their homes.
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