ANSD : Coalition air raids hit rebel supply lines around Hodeida

THU 25 - 4 - 2024

Date: Nov 26, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Coalition air raids hit rebel supply lines around Hodeida

DUBAI/ADEN, Yemen: The Arab military coalition resumed airstrikes against rebel supply lines around Hodeida Sunday, two days after a U.N. envoy visited the lifeline Yemeni port city, pro-government military officials said. The raids came as firefights on the eastern and southern edges of the rebel-held city killed 26 insurgents in the past 24 hours, the officials and doctors in two different hospitals said. Five pro-government fighters were killed in the clashes with the Iran-backed rebels and by landmines, the officials told AFP.

The airstrikes targeted convoys of rebel reinforcements at the northern entrance to Hodeida and south of the city, they said.

The renewed violence came after U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths visited Hodeida Friday to assess the humanitarian situation ahead of peace talks planned for December between Yemen’s coalition-backed government and the rebels.

Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam said on Twitter there had been “35 air raids over the last 12 hours on Hodeida, accompanied by artillery bombardments.”

“This escalation destroys the efforts of the U.N. envoy,” he said.

Under heavy international pressure, the Yemeni government and the coalition had until Sunday largely suspended a five-month offensive against the port city. Fighting had intensified in early November as Yemeni forces backed by the coalition attempted to enter Hodeida, but calm returned after Griffiths arrived in Yemen Wednesday.

After visiting Hodeida Friday, Griffiths Saturday met Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the rebels’ Higher Revolutionary Committee, in the insurgent-held capital Sanaa.

The rebel leader Sunday described the renewed air raids and other hostilities in Hodeida as “an insult” to the U.N. envoy.

Griffiths is due to hold talks with Yemen’s internationally recognized government in Riyadh Monday, according to a U.N. source.

U.N. agencies say up to 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation if fighting closes the city’s port, from which nearly all imports and humanitarian aid pass.

According to U.N. figures, nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the coalition joined the conflict in 2015 to reinforce the government, triggering what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Rights groups fear the actual toll is far higher.

Separately, local security officials and residents said a drone strike probably carried by the United States killed at least five suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including a local commander, in central Yemen’s Al-Bayda province Sunday.

The U.S. military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen. An official in Al-Bayda province said the suspects were armed and in a car when the drone targeted them, and included a local militant leader known as “Dahab,” gold in Arabic. He gave no further details.

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