Coalition plans humanitarian corridor

MILITIAMEN KILLED IN COALITION STRIKES AS FIGHTING HEATS UP IN CENTRAL YEMEN

Militiamen killed in strikes as fighting rages around the embattled city of Hodeida |

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ASaudi-led military alliance fighting in Yemen said yesterday it would open humanitarian corridors between two rebel held areas — the Red Sea city of Hodeida and the capital Sana’a — in coordination with the UN.

“The coalition is working with (UN humanitarian agency) OCHA in Yemen to establish safe humanitarian corridors to help in the delivery of aid... between Hodeida and Sana’a,” coalition spokesman Turki Al Maliki told reporters in Riyadh.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s progovernment forces have unleashed a new operation against Al Houthi militants on the southern edges of the coastal city of Hodeida where Yemeni forces have recently advanced, Al Arabiya reported yesterday.

The offensive by the Giants Brigades is aimed at securing the government forces’ main supply route and stopping repeated infiltration attempts by Iran-aligned Al Houthis, the television station said.

The Yemeni army early yesterday repulsed a militia attack on a mountainous area near the government-controlled district of Al Tahita south east of Hodeida, Al Arabiya reported.

In the past two weeks, government loyalists, supported by an Arab coalition, have tightened the noose around Hodeida ■ with the aim of liberating the Red Sea city and its crucial port from Al Houthis.

Hodeida is strategically important because of its harbour, which is a lifeline for millions of Yemenis, as most of the commercial imports and relief supplies enter through it to the country.

The Saudi-led coalition accuses Al Houthis of taking advantage of their control of Hodeida port to obtain weapons from their Iranian patrons as well as confiscate aid intended for Yemenis in order to sustain their war effort.

In June, government forces, backed by the coalition, started an onslaught to expel Al Houthis from Hodeida, the largest attack in Yemen’s war of more than three years.

Flashpoints

The campaign was temporarily halted in support of UN efforts to revive Yemen’s longstalemated peace process. The military action in Yemen has escalated this month after Al Houthis failed to appear in Switzerland for UN-sponsored peace talks.

The central province of Al Bayda is among the flashpoints between government forces and Al Houthis.

The Yemeni army troops this week mounted a surprise attack on the militiamen in the district of Qania northeast of Al Bayda where the government forces made further advancements, the 26 September Net linked to the Defence Ministry reported.

AFP Yemenis celebrate the 56th anniversary of the September 26 revolution in the citadel of Cairo Castle, in the southern city of Taiz yesterday. A picture of Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi is visible in the background.

WAM His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, received Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa in Abu Dhabi yesterday. They discussed the long-established brotherly relations between the two countries.