Clashes reach residential streets in Yemen’s Hodeida

HODEIDA AFP NOV11, 2018 - Fighting for control of Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida reached residential streets on Sunday, as the Huthi insurgents mounted fierce resistance to government forces backed by Saudi Arabia, military sources said.

Fears for civilian safety have been rising since November 1, when the loyalist forces renewed an operation to take Hodeida. The Red Sea port city has been in the grip of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels since 2014.

Troops entered residential streets in eastern Hodeida Sunday with the aim of “purging them of insurgents”, according to a progovernment military official.

Rebels entrenched in the streets and positioned on rooftops battled to keep loyalist fighters out of a neighbourhood located between two major landmarks in Hodeida, the city’s main hospital and vegetable market, both essential to the daily lives of civilians.

Yemeni pro-government forces gather on the eastern outskirts of Hodeida, as they continue to battle for control of the city from Huthi rebels