149 killed in latest Hodeida clashes
Saudi-led coalition targets Al Houthis with multiple air strikes
If the port at Hodeida is destroyed, that could create an absolutely catastrophic situation.”
Antonio Guterres | UN Secretary-General
At least 149 people including civilians have been killed in 24 hours of clashes between government forces and the Iran-allied Al Houthi militia in Yemen’s flashpoint city of Hodeida, medics and military sources said yesterday.
Government forces, led on the ground by UAE-backed troops, have made their way into rebel-held Hodeida after 11 days of clashes, reaching residential neighbourhoods in the east on Sunday.
Residents and government military sources have reported Al Houthi snipers stationed on rooftops in civilian streets in eastern Hodeida, a few miles from the port on the western edge of the city.
Aid groups fear for the safety of nearly 600,000 people living in Hodeida. Medics in hospitals across the city reported 110 Al Houthis and 32 pro-government fighters killed overnight, according to a tally by AFP.
Sources at the Al Alfi military hospital, seized by Al Houthis during their 2014 takeover, said charred body parts had been delivered there overnight.
Military sources confirmed that the Saudi-led alliance had targeted Al Houthis with multiple air strikes.
The militias have begun to transfer their wounded to Sana’a, the capital, which Al Houthis seized during a 2014 takeover that included a string of ports on the Yemeni coastline.
Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the Yemeni government’s fight against the Al Houthis in 2015. The Saudi-led alliance drove Al Houthis from the Yemeni coast.
UN-brokered negotiations
Nearly 600 people have been killed since clashes erupted in Hodeida on November 1, ending a temporary suspension in a government offensive to take the city that began in June.
The United Nations’ Yemen envoy, Martin Griffiths, is pushing for peace talks between Al Houthis and the Saudi-backed government by the end of the year. Multiple UN-brokered negotiations have failed to find a solution to the Yemen conflict.
Hodeida port has been under blockade by the coalition for a year.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned yesterday that the destruction of the vital Yemeni port of Hodeida could trigger a “catastrophic” situation. “If the port at Hodeida is destroyed, that could create an absolutely catastrophic situation,” Guterres told France Info radio during a trip to Paris.