NYtimes.com: Medical Need Climbs Alongside Death Toll in Yemen

SANA, Yemen — Airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition were said to have killed at least 80 people in Yemen on Wednesday, and the World Health Organization warned that roughly one-third of the country’s population was in urgent need of medical care.

The airstrikes hit a military base in a densely populated neighborhood here in the capital and areas near the Saudi border. Health officials said those killed included dozens of civilians, as well as fighters loyal to the Houthi rebel movement.

The death toll, which could not be independently confirmed, appeared to be one of the highest in a single day since Saudi Arabia launched its air war against the Houthis in late March, with the stated goal of returning Yemen’s exiled government to power.

After two months of warfare, the Saudis appear to be no closer to achieving that objective and are still relying mainly on air power to weaken the Houthis, a Shiite rebel group the Saudis view as an instrument of Iranian influence in Yemen. The Houthis and their allies dominate the capital and have a military presence in certain other important cities, including the port of Aden in the south.

Annotated maps showing the Houthi rebels’ drive south, U.S. airstrikes and historical divisions.

The United Nations tried to hold negotiations in Geneva this week to resolve the conflict. But the talks were postponed indefinitely, apparently at the insistence of Yemen’s exiled president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who demanded that the Houthis withdraw from captured territory as a precondition for the talks.

In the absence of negotiations, the military conflict has grown in intensity. Areas in northern Yemen near the Saudi border have become a fiercely contested front in recent weeks, with both the Houthis and the Saudis mounting a series of deadly cross-border attacks.

The airstrikes in the capital on Wednesday morning followed a familiar pattern, with Saudi-led attacks against military targets in populated areas setting off secondary explosions that sent shrapnel hurtling toward civilian homes nearby.

Witnesses said the airstrikes hit the headquarters of a counterterrorism unit that had received training and financing from the United States before the conflict. The attack occurred around 10:30 a.m., as Houthi recruits were gathering there to receive weapons. Explosions in the area continued for hours afterward, witnesses said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said that nearly 2,000 people had been killed in the fighting since March, including “hundreds of women and children.” Out of a population of 24 million, the organization said, some 8.6 million people “are in urgent need of medical help,” both for war-related injuries and for common medical conditions.

Hospitals around the country have closed because of shortages of staff members and fuel, and medicines for diabetes, cancer and hypertension are no longer available. The organization added that “outbreaks of polio and measles are also serious risks.”