Leading rebel officers were among those killed in the weekend air strike on a funeral in Yemen's capital, blamed on pro-government Arab coalition warplanes, according to official media reports on Tuesday.

Funerals for several top rebel-allied officers and officials killed in Saturday's strike were held in Sanaa on Tuesday, rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported.

The Iran-backed rebels have blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the air strike, one of the deadliest since the alliance launched a military campaign against the Shiite insurgents in March 2015.

After initially denying responsibility, the coalition said Sunday it was ready to investigate the "regrettable and painful" strike, while UN chief Ban Ki-Moon demanded a "prompt and impartial" probe.

Three commanders of the elite republican guard brigades, loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who is allied with Shiite Huthi rebels, were said to be among those killed.

They were named by Saba as General Ali al-Jaefi, head of the republican guard and Brigadiers Abdulmalik Marzooq and Ali al-Hamzi.

General Ahmed Manea, a member of the supreme security committee, was also among those killed in the air strike which killed at least 140 people and wounded more than 525 others according to the UN.

Deputy security chief of Sanaa province, Ahmed al-Shalef, and the head of the rebels' civil status authority, brigadier Yehya al-Rowaishan, were also listed as killed in the attack.

The Saudi-led coalition has come under increasing international pressure over civilian deaths.

The conflict has killed more than 6,800 people — almost two thirds of them civilians — and displaced at least three million since the coalition launched it campaign in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah calls for protests in solidarity with Yemen
Beirut (AFP) Oct 11, 2016 –

The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement late Tuesday called for widespread protests in solidarity with Yemen after an air strike there killed at least 140 people.

Hassan Nasrallah made a rare live appearance in front of thousands of supporters in the southern suburb of Beirut on the eve of Ashura, one of the most important festivals on the Shiite Muslim calendar.

"Tomorrow, we will renew… our stance beside the oppressed, honourable, slain, and besieged Yemeni people," Nasrallah said, referring to Wednesday's morning march in commemoration of Ashura.

"We say to them: You are not alone. We are all Yemen," he said in comments carried live by the group's television station Al-Manar.

Saturday's strike on a funeral ceremony in Yemen was one of the deadliest attacks since the Saudi-led coalition launched a bombing campaign against Shiite rebels there in March 2015.

Nasrallah accused Saudi warplanes of carrying out the raid, echoing Yemen's Huthi rebels who blamed the Riyadh-led coalition for the strike.

The head of the powerful Shiite movement was met with chants of "Death to the Saud family" from supporters wearing green in commemoration of Ashura, referring to the Sunni-majority kingdom's ruling family.

For Shiites around the world, Ashura is a symbol of the struggle against oppression as it commemorates the assassination of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680.

"Our region is witnessing escalation and instability, unlike what we had seen in recent months, which had indicated the region was heading towards a political solution," Nasrallah said.

"But in the last few weeks, every optimistic political development that had given a positive impression has collapsed," he said.

Nasrallah, whose group has intervened in neighbouring Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad, said fighting was escalating across Syria after the collapse of a US-Russia truce deal last month.

More than 300,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011.

The war has drawn in regional and world powers, and several attempts at securing a diplomatic solution have fallen flat.