SAUDI-LED invasion forces bombed civilian homes in Yemen yesterday, the day before a new US-agreed ceasefire is due to take effect.

The aircraft of the nine-nation coalition hit the Bani Matar district of Saada province, south-west of the capital Sanaa, with three strikes, destroying private homes and public property in the village of Yazel.

Ibb University condemned the coalition after it bombed the faculty of medicine.

However, the Yemeni army and Houthi clan militia foiled an attempt by coalition “mercenaries” to infiltrate northern Yemen near al-Buqa in Saada province, killing seven of them.

On Tuesday, the Houthis repelled an attack in the Midi desert on the Red Sea coast, claiming to have killed 50 coalition troops.

The same day, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had agreed a truce, to begin today, with the Supreme Political Council (SPC) government in Sanaa.

It pledged to abide by the ceasefire provided the coalition and its Riyadh-based puppet government, led by former president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, did the same.

The SPC also said it was willing to participate in a unity government to be formed by the end of the year.

The deal was struck in neighbouring Oman, which has remained neutral in the war between the SPC and Washington’s Gulf Arab allies.

“There is a humanitarian disaster in Yemen, (not) just serious security and economic and political and humanitarian challenges,” Mr Kerry said after flying out.

“All the parties we talk to agree that there’s no military solution,” he stressed. “So if that’s the fact, you’ve got to get into: What is the political solution?”

But the Hadi faction immediately rejected the peace deal, calling it “unilateral.”

Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhalfi tweeted angrily: “The government doesn’t know and is not concerned with what Kerry announced.

“This shows a desire to foil peace efforts by trying to reach a deal with Houthis away from the government.”

But the US is not neutral in the war on Yemen, having sold arms to Saudi Arabia and other belligerents and provided in-flight refuelling support to more than 5,000 air raids.

Last month, US navy ships launched cruise missiles at the Yemeni coastline, supposedly in response to missile attacks — denied by the Republican Guard.

That came a week after the Saudis bombed a funeral in Sanaa, slaughtering some 150 mourners, in revenge for the sinking of an Emirati warship a week earlier.