Dozens die in fighting in rebel-held Yemeni city

Yemeni pro-government forces were locked in heavy fighting with rebels yesterday, leaving 39 people dead as they led a Saudi and Uae-backed offensive to retake the city of Hodeida.

Yemeni forces, backed by a Saudiled coalition, launched an assault to recapture Hodeida, the key aid port city which has been controlled by the Iran-allied Houthi rebels since 2014.

The UN Security Council met yesterday for urgent talks on the attack, which Russia warned could have “catastrophic consequences”.

The launch of the Saudi-led coalition’s assault against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels controlling the Yemeni port of Hodeidah has prompted the UN and aid agencies to issue dire warnings that the action could deepen the country’s humanitarian disaster. UN Secretarygeneral António Guterres said recently that more than 22 million people – three quarters of the Yemeni population – are in desperate need of help and protection, and there are fears the crisis could worsen if aid distribution suffers further disruption.

Yet one reason the country finds itself in this terrible predicament is the pernicious influence exercised by the Houthi rebels and their Iranian backers. The fact that an estimated eight million Yemeni civilians are on the verge of starvation is largely due to the Houthis’ stranglehold over Hodeidah, one of the main supply routes for food, medicine and fuel. Rather than oversee an equitable distribution of aid, the Houthis have indulged in looting, extortion and intimidation.

More ominously, they have used the port to smuggle arms from Iran to launch attacks across the Yemeni border into Saudi Arabia.

With the Houthis widely blamed for the collapse of Un-sponsored talks to place the port under international supervision to facilitate the provision of much-needed aid, the coalition argues it has no choice but to liberate Hodeidah by force. As Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE’S Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, writes on telegraph.co.uk, “Once Hodeidah is returned to government control it will help to break the impasse.” In the absence of any other viable option to end Yemen’s bitter civil war, we sincerely hope he is right.