Yemen said on Saturday it would halt operations for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in a war with northern rebels that killed dozens this week and has prompted calls for the government to better protect civilians, Reuters reported.
Instability in Yemen, which includes a revived campaign against foreign and government targets by al Qaeda over the past two years, has alarmed Western powers and neighboring Saudi Arabia, one of the world's biggest oil producers.
"The government will cease military operations in the north western regions from this point forward," a statement in state media said, repeating demands insurgents return territory under their control and submit to central government authority.
The Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, is expected to start on Sunday and last for three days. The statement said the ceasefire would start Saturday.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the rebels of the Shi'ite Zaydi Muslim sect in Saada and Amran provinces, told Al Jazeera television they were ready to halt the fighting and called on the government to release prisoners held for four years.
A statement on the rebels' website said that on Friday the army had carried out three air raids and blown up houses in Saada city, which is under government control.
Around 87 people died on Wednesday in an air raid at a makeshift camp for displaced persons in Saada province, and two days earlier a market in the town of al-Talh was bombed.
The incidents met with wide condemnation from aid organizations and Yemeni rights groups. The United Nations top human rights official called on Yemen to meet its obligations to civilians.
Ali Salem al-Beidh, the leader of the former south Yemen republic -- exiled after a war with President Ali Abdullah Saleh's forces in 1994 -- told a gathering of southern separatists that Saleh's government had committed a war crime.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, called on Saleh to bring the war to an end during a televised speech on Friday evening -- the latest Shi'ite figure to do so after calls from Iraqi and Iranian politicians.
"Open the door to a political solution. You have the ability to do that and you can take the initiative," he said.
The government in Sanaa says the rebels, referred to as Houthis after their clan leaders, want to restore a Shi'ite state that fell in the 1960s and accuse Shi'ite power Iran of maintaining contacts with them.
The rebels say they want autonomy and accuse Saleh of despotism and corruption in a drive to stay in power, as well as introducing Sunni fundamentalism via his alliance with Riyadh.
U.N. aid agencies say around 150,000 people have been made refugees since the fighting first began in 2004. They launched an appeal in Geneva last month for $23.5 million to help Yemen. Thousands are staying in tented camps in mountainous territory.
Media have had difficulty accessing the conflict zone and verifying conflicting reports from each side.
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