A car bomb near a mosque in Yemen's capital Saturday killed two people, as Saudi-led warplanes bombarded second city Aden, after peace talks in Geneva ended without agreement.

The explosion in Sanaa, controlled by Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels, went off outside the Kobbat al-Mehdi mosque as Shiite Muslims emerged from midday prayers, witnesses and security sources said.

As well as the two dead, another 16 people were wounded, medical officials said.

The blast, which comes as Muslims observe the fasting month of Ramadan, damaged the entrance of the mosque and shattered the windows of a nearby house, an AFP photographer reported.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, SITE Intelligence Group reported, the latest in a series that has targeted Sanaa, which the Huthi rebels seized in September.

Since then they have expanded their control to other parts of Sunni-majority Yemen, including Aden in the south, forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.

On Wednesday, at least 31 people were killed and dozens wounded in five simultaneous bombings, also claimed by the radical Sunni Muslim jihadist group at Shiite mosques and offices in Sanaa.

Saturday's car attack came hours after Saudi-led warplanes launched 15 strikes against Huthi targets in the port city of Aden.

A pro-government military source said the dawn strikes pounded the northern, eastern and western approaches to Aden, to isolate the Huthis and support forces loyal to Hadi.

"The objective is to close the noose around the Huthi rebels in Aden and assist the Popular Resistance Committees," said the source.

Anti-rebel forces comprising pro-government fighters, Sunni tribes, and southern separatists are referred to as Popular Resistance Committees.

They have been locked in fierce fighting against the Huthis in Aden, which has been devastated by Saudi-led strikes launched in March in support of Hadi.

On Saturday the rebels shelled several neighbourhoods of Aden, killing four people and wounding several others, the military source said, a toll confirmed by hospital officials.

- Peace talks deadlocked -

The violence came after UN's special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced Friday in Geneva that talks between the warring sides ended without agreement.

"I won't beat around the bush. There was no kind of agreement reached," the Mauritanian diplomat told reporters.

Yemen's rivals blamed each other for the deadlock.

"I am disappointed. We did everything to make the talks a success but there were too many obstacles, especially the demand for a withdrawal," rebel delegation head Hamza al-Huthi told AFP.

Yemen's exiled foreign minister blamed the lack of progress on the rebel delegation.

"We really came here with a big hope... but unfortunately the Huthi delegation did not allow us really to reach real progress as we expected," said Riad Yassin.

The government is demanding in line with a UN Security Council resolution that the rebels withdraw from the territory they control, but the Huthis have called for an unconditional halt to the air strikes before they consider a pause in fighting.

The rebels are backed by fighters loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to step down after a year of bloody protests calling for an end to his three decades of iron-fisted rule.

More than 2,600 have been killed in the fighting which has also left 80 percent of the population -- 20 million people -- in need of urgent humanitarian aid, according to UN estimates.

The situation is particularly grave in Aden, where residents have complained of food and water shortages, while medics speak of a rapidly deteriorating health situation and the spread of disease.

A boat laden with supplies, including flour, that was due to dock in Aden this week had to divert course to Hodeida in western Yemen due to the fighting, said Aden Deputy Governor Nayef al-Bakri.

He accused the Huthis of deliberately forcing the vessel, chartered by the UN's World Food Programme, to change course because they control the port in Hodeida.

'No agreement' as Yemen peace talks end in Geneva
Geneva (AFP) June 19, 2015 - Yemen peace talks ended in Geneva on Friday with no agreement, but the United Nations said it was still optimistic a ceasefire could be reached "pretty soon."

"I won't beat around the bush. There was no kind of agreement reached," said the UN's special envoy for Yemen, Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

But he hailed "certain positive signs" in his negotiations with the warring factions, adding both sides seemed to agree on the need for a ceasefire.

"We feel that it requires simply some further consultations and that we can achieve it pretty soon," said the envoy, who will now head to New York to brief UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council.

No date has yet been set for a fresh round of talks, but the Mauritanian diplomat said he hoped a desperately needed humanitarian pause in the fighting could be put in place before any new talks.

Yemen has been wracked by conflict between Iran-backed Shiite rebels and troops loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia in February.

The rebels have overrun much of the Sunni-majority country and, along with their allies among forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been the target of Saudi-led air strikes since March. More than 2,600 people have been killed.

- 'Useful start' -

"I am disappointed, we did everything to make the talks a success but there were too many obstacles, especially the demand for a withdrawal," the leader of the rebel delegation Hamza al-Huthi told AFP.

"We cannot withdraw and leave a vacuum. But I am hopeful that we will be able to talk again in the near future."

Ban launched the high-stakes Geneva negotiations on Monday with an appeal for a two-week humanitarian truce during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

But the belligerents' positions were so far apart that they did even sit down in the same room, forcing Ould Cheikh Ahmed to shuttle between separate locations.

Yemen's exiled foreign minister blamed the lack of progress on the rebel delegation.

"We really came here with a big hope ... but unfortunately the Huthi delegation did not allow us really to reach real progress as we expected," Yassin told reporters.

The government delegation remained optimistic of a peaceful solution for Yemen "under the umbrella of the UN," he added.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed however insisted that just getting the two sides to Geneva had been "a great achievement", as he pledged to intensify his push for peace.

"The Geneva consultations are not the end in themselves, but the launch of a long and arduous path" towards finding a peaceful solution, he said.

And the United States said the Geneva talks were "a useful start to the process to what will probably be a lengthy process."

"We continue to urge all Yemeni participants to prioritise reaching an agreement to end the fighting," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

- 'Looming catastrophe' -

As the talks wrapped up Friday, the UN launched an appeal for $1.6 billion (1.4 billion euros) to help millions of people in need in the war-ravaged country.

"I am deliberately raising the alarm about the looming humanitarian catastrophe facing Yemen, where over 21 million Yemenis, 80 percent of the countries population, are in need of some form of aid to meet their basic needs or protect their basic rights today," the UN's new humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brian told reporters.

"These numbers are difficult to comprehend," he said, but insisted "we must not grow numb to the suffering of each and every individual who lies behind them."

Friday's funding appeal will cover aid, including food, water and shelter, to 11.7 million of the most vulnerable people in need through the end of the year.