Partial encirclement of Hodeida planned

Corridor will be left open for Al Houthis to flee, says governor of the Red Sea port city

The Governor of Hodeida, Al Hassan Taher, has said that government troops have drawn up a plan to partially encircle the city.

“The army troops are advancing towards Hodeida and are working to encircle it from two directions: in the south and south-east with the aim of blocking any supplies to the [Al Houthi] militias from Sana’a and Taiz [in the south],” Taher told the London-based newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsat in remarks published yesterday.

He added that an exit corridor will be created for militants to flee from Hodeida, which lies on Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Victory is imminent

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash has said that an ongoing military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen was an unavoidable choice, but predicted an imminent victory against the Iran-allied Al Houthi militants.

“The Yemen test remains tough, but it was an affliction that there was no choice but to confront,” Gargash said in a tweet.

“Time has proven that the decision of the Resolve [Operation] was right and that the determination of the Saudi leadership and support of the Emirati leadership can move mammoth mountains. Cheer up, victory is imminent.”

Gargash described as “inspiring” UAE troops’ performances in Yemen, saying it had taken Al Houthis by surprise.

Spokesman for the Saudiled bloc, fighting in Yemen, Colonel Turki Al Malaki said last week that the government forces, supported by the alliance, were around 20 kilometres from Hodeida.

Hodeida lies 230 kilometres from Sana’a, which Al Houthis seized in a coup in 2014.

This prompted a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen the following year, aimed at restoring the internationally-recognised government of exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The coalition accuses Al Houthis of using Hodeida as a launch pad for attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and for smuggling in rockets.

Al Houthis have in recent months ramped up missile attacks against neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia’s main coalition ally, set up a force in early 2018 to ramp up the coastal offensive, leading a disparate collective of groups with the stated goal of taking Hodeida.

Elite unit

The forces include the Giants Brigades — a former elite unit of the Yemeni army rebuilt by the UAE — which has been at the vanguard of the offensive, reinforced by thousands of fighters from Southern Yemen.

The National Resistance is made up of loyalists of Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was assassinated by his former Al Houthi allies in December. It is commanded by his nephew Tareq Saleh.

The third force, the Tihama Resistance, is named for a Red Sea coastal region from which it draws most of its fighters, who are loyal to Hadi.