Yemeni Shi'ite rebels said on Tuesday they had withdrawn completely from Saudi territory as part of a truce offer extended to the world's top oil exporter.
The rebels' leader offered a ceasefire to Saudi Arabia on Monday, saying his fighters would withdraw from the kingdom''s territory to avoid more civilian casualties. A Saudi defence ministry spokesman said Riyadh was mulling the offer.
"There has been a complete withdrawal from all Saudi positions and territory," the rebels said in a statement posted to their website.
The statement added that Saudi air strikes had killed five people and wounded two on Monday evening. It did not say if the strikes occurred before or after the truce offer by Shi'ite rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, which followed three months of border fighting between Shi'ite rebels and Saudi forces.
"The truce offer is being examined and we will make an official decision later today," Saudi defence ministry spokesman General Ibrahim al-Malek said.
Yemen's central government has been fighting the rebels on and off since 2004, but the conflict intensified last summer when Sanaa launched Operation Scorched Earth to quash the latest upsurge in violence.
Saudi Arabia stepped into the fray in November when rebels seized some Saudi territory, prompting Riyadh to wage a major military offensive against them.
"To avoid more bloodshed and to stop aggression on civilians ... we offer this initiative," rebel leader Houthi said on Monday in an audio recording posted on the Internet.
He warned that if Saudi Arabia did not end its hostilities in return, rebels would wage an
"open war" on the kingdom. The conflict raging in north Yemen has displaced around 200,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday humanitarian conditions in northern Yemen were worse than ever and that fighting had dramatically worsened the fate of Yemeni civilians.
Yemen is also in the throes of a crackdown on al Qaeda whose regional wing is based in the country, while also trying to contain simmering unrest from a southern separatist movement.
Western powers and Riyadh fear Yemen will become a failed state, allowing a resurgent al Qaeda to exploit chaos and use the country as a base for more international attacks.
