Bid to retake key Yemeni port

> Saudi-led coalition attacks Hodeidah in biggest battle of three-year war

ADEN: A Saudi-led coalition launched an assault on Yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah yesterday in the biggest battle of a three-year war between an alliance of Arab states and the Iran-aligned Houthis.

Coalition warplanes and warships pounded Houthi fortifications to support ground operations by Yemeni troops massed south of the country’s largest port, the internationally recognised Yemeni government in exile said.

The Golden Victory operation began after the passing of a deadline set by the United Arab Emirates for the Houthis, who hold the capital Sanaa and the main populated areas of Yemen, to quit the sole port under their control.

The Red Sea port is a lifeline for Yemenis, handling 80% of essential goods to the impoverished country, which the United Nations says is grappling with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Some 8.4 million people in Yemen face pre-famine conditions, according to the World Health Organisation.

Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, who has threatened attacks on oil tankers along the strategic Red Sea shipping lane, warned the Western-backed alliance not to attack the port and said on Twitter his forces had targeted a coalition barge.

Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said two missiles struck the barge, but there was no immediate confirmation from the coalition.

The United Nations had been trying to get the parties to reach a deal that would avert an attack on Hodeidah, which it fears would further impede Yemenis’ access to food, fuel and medicine for millions of Yemenis facing disease.

It estimates that 600,000 people live in the area, and in a worst-case scenario, a battle could cost up to 250,000 lives, as well as cutting off aid and other supplies to millions of people.

ICRC spokesman Marie-Claire Feghali said the assault was “likely to exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen”, where water and electricity networks are vital to the civilian population’s survival.

The assault is the first time since the coalition of mostly Gulf states joined the war in 2015 that they have attempted to capture such a well-defended major city.

The aim is to box in the Houthis in Sanaa, cut their supply lines and force them to the negotiating table.

Yemeni forces – drawn from southern separatists, local units from the Red Sea coastal plain and a battalion led by a nephew of late former president Ali Abdullah Saleh – are fighting alongside Emirati and Sudanese troops.

The alliance intervened in Yemen to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and thwart what Riyadh and Abu Dhabi see as the expansionist aims of Tehran.

The Houthis deny they are Iranian pawns and say their revolt aims to target corruption and defend Yemen from invaders. – Reuters