ANSD : U.N.'s Yemen envoy in Sanaa, as 32 rebels killed

SAT 27 - 4 - 2024

Date: Sep 17, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

U.N.'s Yemen envoy in Sanaa, as 32 rebels killed

_{Agence France Presse}
ADEN: Fresh clashes and airstrikes have killed 32 rebels around Yemen's Red Sea city of Hudaida, hospital sources said Sunday, as the U.N. envoy kept up peace efforts in Sanaa.

A military source told AFP the Arab coalition fighting alongside the Yemeni government against Houthi rebels carried out an air raid on a radio station tower in the port city of Hudaida.

Three people died in Sunday's raid, he said, while Houthi-run Al-Masirah television said four people were killed, three security guards and a station employee.

According to medical sources in Hudaida province, which is controlled by the Houthis, a total of 32 insurgents were killed and 14 others wounded in clashes and airstrikes since Saturday.

The coalition accuses the Iran-backed Houthis of smuggling arms from Iran through Hudaida and has imposed a partial blockade on the port, which the rebels seized in 2014.

In June, pro-government forces launched a major operation to retake both the city and its port, the entry point of most of the impoverished country's imports and aid.

The troops, backed by coalition airstrikes, have retaken a number of towns across Hudaida province but have not yet breached the city.

The coalition in July announced a temporary ceasefire in Hudaida to give a chance to U.N.-brokered peace talks.

The U.N.'s Yemen envoy, Martin Griffiths, arrived Sunday in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, without making any statement to the media.

Griffiths is pushing for new peace talks after a failed attempt to bring the two sides together in Geneva earlier this month.

The rebels kept away from the talks, accusing the U.N. of failing to guarantee the return of their delegation from Switzerland to Sanaa and to secure the evacuation of wounded rebels to Oman.

Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in 2015 in the conflict between embattled Yemeni President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, whose government is recognized by the United Nations, and the Houthis.

Nearly 10,000 people have since been killed and the country now stands on the brink of famine.

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