Coalition close to capturing Hodeida airport
FIGHTING INTENSIFIES AS PRO-GOVT FORCES ONLY METRES AWAY FROM KEY TOWN
aden — Arab coalition troops seized the entrance to the airport in Yemen’s main port city of Hodeida on Friday, in an offensive against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels that the United Nations fears could trigger a famine imperilling millions of lives.
The swift advance was an important early success for the Saudi and UAE-led alliance, which launched the operation in Hodeida three days ago and says it can seize the city quickly enough to avoid interrupting aid to millions facing starvation.
“We saw the forces in the square at the northwestern entrance to the airport,” said a Hodeida resident, referring to Yemeni allies of the Saudi-led coalition. Two Yemeni military officials allied to the coalition confirmed it. —
Yemeni commanders say pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition have reached a town at the entrance of the port city of Hodeida and are just “meters” from the international airport.
The Saudi-led coalition is trying to retake the port from Shia rebels known as Houthis.
Ahmed Al Kawkabani, who leads a force known as the Tohama Brigade, said on Friday that fighting is ongoing at the town of Dawar Al Hodeida on the outskirts of the city.
A report by the Saudi-owned satellite network Al Arabiya has quoted commander Abu Zarah Al Mahrami as saying government forces are “within meters” of the airport.
Previously, a Saudi military spokesman told the channel that forces were within six kilometres of Hodeida’s airport.
The Saudi-led coalition began its assault on Wednesday on Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine.
A top Emirati official says a Saudi-led campaign to retake Yemen’s port city of Hodeida “means that the Houthis will no longer be able to impose their will at the barrel of a gun”. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash made the comments on Twitter on Friday.
Friday marked the third day of an offensive to retake Hodeida. Emirati forces are leading irregular and loyalist forces on the ground while Saudi pilots conduct air strikes.
Gargash also said: “If they keep Hodeida and its revenues and its strategic location, the war will last a long time and the suffering of the Yemeni people.”
The United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United Nations said the military offensive by the UAE and Saudi-led coalition against Hodeida “is a deliberate, carefully prepared and executed operation”.
Lana Nusseibeh told a group of UN reporters in New York on Thursday that coalition forces, under the direction of the Yemeni government, will move in “a calibrated, gradual” way.
She wouldn’t speculate on the duration of the military operations saying: “We are facing a small, fanatical group of hardened fighters armed by Iran.
Nusseibeh called the offensive to oust the Houthi rebels “a critical step toward achieving a political solution to this conflict because we know there is no military solution”.
She said the coalition believes it actions “can create the right dynamics” to help UN special envoy Martin Griffiths with his peace plan to end the three-year Yemen conflict.
“At every step along the way the Houthis will be given opportunities to retreat, to disarm and to come back to the negotiating process,” Nusseibeh said.
Battlefield commanders said fighting intensified on Friday outside the airport of Hodeida.
Ahmed Al Kawkabani, who leads the Tohama Brigade, said that his forces are currently positioned in Dawar Al Hodeida, Arabic for “Hodeida roundabout”. — AP, Wam
At every step along the way the Houthis will be given opportunities to retreat, to disarm and to come back to the negotiating process Lana Nusseibeh, UAE envoy to UN