Fighting rages around airport in port city of Hodeida

SANAA, YEMEN » Saudi-led forces fought to retake the international airport of Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida, Yemeni officials and witnesses said on Saturday, as their Shiite Houthi rebel rivals denied the coalition had seized the facility that is the starving nation’s main gateway for food shipments.

With battles raging at the southern side of Hodeida International Airport, the military of Yemen’s exiled government said it had seized the compound, and that engineers were working to clear mines from nearby areas just south of the city of some 600,000 people on the Red Sea.

“The armed forces which are supported by the Arab coalition have freed Hodeida International Airport from the Houthi militias and the engineering teams have started to clear the airport and its surroundings from mines and bombs,” the military said on its official Twitter account.

Sadek Dawad, spokesman of the Republican Guards force loyal to the Saudi-led coalition, said government forces had battled their way onto the airport’s grounds.

Dawad also said the southern gate of Hodeida city was captured by procoalition forces.

“The military operations to liberate the city of Hodeida will not be stopped until we secure the city and its strategic port and that won’t last too long,” he told The Associated Press.

Houthi-linked civil aviation authorities, however, denied that their rivals of the Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni forces have taken control of Hodeida’s airport.

A statement posted Saturday on the Houthis’ official news agency, SABA, quoted Ahmed Taresh, the head of Hodeida airport, as adding that airstrikes have destroyed the airport.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite news channel aired footage it described as being from near Hodeida showing a burnedout truck, corpses of irregular fighters and a damaged Emirati armored vehicle. The Iranian-aligned fighters rifled through a military ledger from the vehicle before chanting their slogan: “Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews, victory to Islam!”

Yemeni officials and witnesses said forces from the United Arab Emirates backed Amaleqa brigades, backed by air cover from the Saudi-led coalition, were heading to eastern Hodeida province to attempt to cut off the main road that links it with the capital, Sanaa.

The officials said that if government forces capture the Kilo 16 Road they will trap the rebels in Hodeida and the western coast and prevent them from receiving supplies from the capital. The rebels are then expected to have no choice but to head to the northern province of Hajjah.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media and the witnesses for fear of reprisals.

The Saudi-led coalition began its assault Wednesday on Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine. Emirati forces are leading ground forces mixed with their own troops, irregular militiamen and soldiers backing Yemen’s exiled government. Saudi Arabia has provided air support, with targeting guidance and refueling coming from the U.S.