Yemen rebels battle to slow loyalist advance in Hodeidah
Yemeni rebels launched fierce barrages of mortar fire yesterday as they battled to slow an advance by pro-government forces deeper into the port city of Hodeidah, military sources said.
The Houthi rebels, whose chief has vowed his troops would never surrender despite being vastly outnumbered, shelled government positions in the south of the Red Sea city, loyalist officials said.
But despite the “intense attacks”, loyalist forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, made fresh advances in eastern sectors of Hodeidah.
Eight days into the renewed offensive, civilians reported relentless air strikes, low-flying jets and Apache helicopters, mortars and missiles on the outskirts of the city and within five kilometres of its strategic port, the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement.
The rebels, for their part, said their fighters had cut off government supply routes in four sectors of Hodeidah province, although there was no confirmation from the loyalist side.
Yesterday, medical sources said that 110 Houthi rebels and 22 pro-government forces had been killed in 24 hours of violence, bringing to at least 382 the number of combatants killed since the battle for Hodeidah intensified on November 1.
Backed by Saudi air raids, loyalist troops for the first time entered residential neighbourhoods on Thursday, using bulldozers to remove concrete road blocks installed by the rebels.
Nearly 80% of Yemen’s commercial imports and practically all UN-supervised humanitarian aid passes through the port.
The Houthis have controlled Hodeidah since 2014 when they overran the capital Sanaa and swept though much of the rest of the country, triggering the intervention by the Saudi-led coalition the following year and a devastating war of attrition.
The rebels have since been driven out of virtually all of the south and much of the Red Sea coast.
Government forces launched their offensive to retake Hodeidah in June backed by significant numbers of Emirati ground troops.
Their advance into the city of some 600,000 people has been slowed by rebel-dug trenches and minefields.
The Norwegian Refugee Council warned further fighting could cut off roads between Hodeidah and Sanaa.
“There is now only one viable overland route from Hodeidah city to Sanaa, and a very high risk that further aerial or land attacks on roads or bridges could sever access roads between the cities entirely,” it said.
This would result in “cutting the last remaining supply route for food, fuel and medicine to many of the estimated 20mn Yemenis who depend on imports through Hodeidah”. IHS Markit Middle East senior analyst Ludovico Carlino said he expected Saudi and UAE coalition forces to step up their assault in the coming days and “capture” the port before any talks start.
“Saudi Arabia and the UAE consider the capture of Hodeidah as an essential precursor to any peace talks with the Houthi movement, as this would allow the Yemeni government to have much more political leverage at the negotiating table,” he said.
“As such, fighting for control of the port will probably begin in earnest over the coming days, and intensify thereafter,” Carlino said, warning the Houthis could “sabotage” facilities at Hodeidah port if forced to retreat.
Both the United States and the United Nations are pushing for peace talks on Yemen to take place by the end of the year.
Salem Jaffer Baobaid, an aid worker for Islamic Relief charity in Hodeidah, painted a bleak picture of daily life in an account published by the humanitarian news agency IRIN.
“Lately the fighting is edging closer to the city centre and I can hear it. Few people sleep through the night, and I can see the exhaustion and anxiety on my neighbours’ faces,” he said.