Saudi-backed forces move closer to port

SANAA, Yemen — The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government captured a town south of the port city of Hodeida on Thursday as fighting and airstrikes pounded the area on the second day of an offensive to capture the strategic harbor that is the main entry point for food.

A Saudi military spokesman said the forces were drawing closer to the Red Sea port in a campaign aimed at driving out Iranian-aligned Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held Hodeida since 2015, and breaking the civil war’s stalemate.

International aid agencies and the United Nations have warned the assault could shut down the aid route for some 70 percent of Yemen’s food and the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relies on aid, and 8.4 million are at risk of starving.

The United Arab Emirates ambassador to U.N. agencies in Geneva said that the coalition had no choice buttoact.

“Should we leave the Houthis smuggling missiles?” Ambassador Obaid Salem al-zaabi told a news conference. “This comes from this seaport. We already gave the United Nations the chance to operate from this seaport, and (the Houthis) refused.”

The ambassador’s comments contradict the conclusions of a U.N. panel of experts that said it was unlikely the Houthis were using the port for smuggling arms. In its report in January, the panel said that ships coming into the port face random inspections and require U.N. approval and that no weapons have been seized since March 2017.

The U.N. and Western nations have accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with weapons, from assault rifles to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.