SANAA, Yemen >> Saudi-led forces fought to retake the international airport of Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida, Yemeni officials and witnesses said on Saturday, as their Shiite Houthi rebel rivals denied the coalition had seized the facility that is the starving nation’s main gateway for food shipments.

With battles raging at the southern side of Hodeida International Airport, the military of Yemen’s exiled government said it had entirely seized the compound, and that engineers were working to clear mines from nearby areas just south of the city of some 600,000 people on the Red Sea.

“The armed forces which are supported by the Arab coalition have freed Hodeida International Airport from the Houthi militias and the engineering teams have started to clear the airport and its surroundings from mines and bombs,” the military said on its official Twitter account.

Sadek Dawad, spokesman of the Republican Guards force loyal to the Saudi-led coalition, said government forces had battled their way onto the airport’s grounds.

Dawad also said the southern gate of Hodeida city was captured by pro-coalition forces.

“The military operations to liberate the city of Hodeida will not be stopped until we secure the city and its strategic port and that won’t last too long,” he told The Associated Press.

Houthi-linked civil aviation authorities, however, denied that their rivals of the Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni forces have taken control of Hodeida’s airport.

A statement posted Saturday on the Houthis’ official news agency, SABA, quoted Ahmed Taresh, the head of Hodeida airport, as adding that airstrikes have completely destroyed the airport.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite news channel aired footage it described as being from near Hodeida showing a burned-out truck, corpses of irregular fighters and a damaged Emirati armored vehicle. The Iranian-aligned fighters rifled through a military ledger from the vehicle before chanting their slogan: “Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews, victory to Islam!”

Yemeni officials and witnesses said forces from the United Arab Emirates-backed Amaleqa brigades, backed by air cover from the Saudi-led coalition, were heading to eastern Hodeida province to attempt to cut off the main road that links it with the capital, Sanaa.

The officials said that if government forces capture the Kilo 16 Road they will trap the rebels in Hodeida and the western coast and prevent them from receiving supplies from the capital. The rebels are then expected to have no choice but to head to the northern province of Hajjah.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media and the witnesses for fear of reprisals.

The Saudi-led coalition began its assault Wednesday on Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine. Emirati forces are leading ground forces mixed with their own troops, irregular militiamen and soldiers backing Yemen’s exiled government. Saudi Arabia has provided air support, with targeting guidance and refueling coming from the U.S.

United Nations special envoy Martin Griffiths, meanwhile arrived in Sanaa in an effort to broker a cease-fire.

International aid groups and the U.N. cautioned the Saudi-led coalition from launching the assault. Their fear is that a protracted fight could force a shutdown of Hodeida’s port at a time when a halt in aid risks tipping millions into starvation. Some 70 percent of Yemen’s food enters via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country’s population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are already at risk of starving.

The World Health Organization expressed concern on Saturday over the fighting around Hodeida, calling for unbroken aid access and protection of health workers.

In a statement Saturday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “we stand with our U.N. partners to call on all parties to the conflict to protect the port, and allow its uninterrupted functioning. We also call on all parties to protect health workers and their facilities from harm, as well as to ensure unimpeded access for medical teams seeking to treat the wounded.”

For its part, the Saudi-led coalition says it had no choice but to launch the assault as the port provided millions of dollars for the Houthis through customs controls. They also accuse the Houthis of using the port to smuggle weapons through, something a U.N. panels of experts described in January as “unlikely” as incoming ships require U.N. permission and are subject to random searches.

The U.N. and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons, from assault rifles to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.

The coalition has blocked most ports, letting supplies into Hodeida in coordination with the U.N. The air campaign and fighting have disrupted other supply lines, causing an economic crisis that makes food too expensive for many to afford.

Aid agencies and the U.N. evacuated international staff from the city ahead of the offensive. Some of the wounded able to flee are driving onto Aden, some 195 miles away, after being stabilized at a hospital in Mocha on the way, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said. The local hospital in Hodeida already is struggling to help the wounded, the group said.

Thousands remain besieged in the city and around the airport due to the fighting.

“Families are trapped inside and it is difficult leaving as they are coming under airstrikes and bombardment by both parties of the war,” relief worker Saber Wasel told The Associated Press. “It was a hard night for citizens because of the intensity of the strikes and gunfire.”

Security officials and witnesses said Saturday that Houthi rebels had also attacked government forces in al-Faza and al-Gah towns on the western coast over the past two days, killing at least 16 troops and wounding at least 13 others, and cut off the road that links between al-Gah and ad-Durayhimi district, some 12 miles south Hodeida’s airport.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media, and the witnesses for fear of reprisals.

The Houthis seized control of Sanaa in September 2014, later pushing south toward the port city of Aden. The Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in March 2015 and has faced criticism for a campaign of airstrikes killing civilians and destroying hospitals and markets.

The Houthis meanwhile have laid land mines killing and wounding civilians, targeted religious minorities and imprisoned opponents.

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report. </s> Saudi-led forces leading an assault on Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida have seized control of its international airport.

Fierce fighting continued around what is the main gateway for food and aid supplies into Yemen, which is on the brink of famine.

The media office of the pro-alliance Yemeni military said on Twitter: "Army forces backed by the resistance and the Arab alliance freed Hodeida international airport from the grip of the Houthi militia."

Fighting in the airport area has led to the closure of the northern entrance of Hodeida, which leads to Sanaa, residents said.

Image: Yemeni pro-government forces gather at the south of Hodeida airport

This has blocked a key exit out of the city and made it more difficult to transport goods from the port.

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Aly Omar, whose son was wounded in an airstrike, said he and his family spent three days trapped in the Manzar neighbourhood next to the airport as fighting raged around them.

He said: "We didn't have any food, or drink or anything, not even water.

"I call on the United Nations and the Red Cross to open a way for us to get out of the situation we're in. Our kids, women and elderly are stuck."

Image: The city is a crucial entry point for aid

The number of dead rose to 280 by the fourth day of the campaign which is aiming to drive out the Iranian-backed Shia rebels, known as Houthis, from the Red Sea port of Hodeida.

The Saudi-led coalition began its assault on Wednesday and Emirati forces are leading ground forces combined with their own troops, irregular militiamen and soldiers backing Yemen's exiled government.

Saudi Arabia has provided air support with targeting guidance and refuelling is being supplied by the US.

Image: Yemenis visit the graves of relatives at a cemetery in Sanaa on 15 June

Aid groups and the United Nations cautioned the coalition from launching the assault amid fears that a drawn-out conflict could force a shutdown of Hodeida's port at a time when a halt in aid risks tipping millions into starvation.

About 70% of Yemen's food enters the country through the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies.

Some two-thirds of the country's population of 27 million rely on aid and 8.4 million are already at risk of starvation.

The coalition says it had no choice but to launch the assault as the port provided millions of dollars for the Houthis through customs controls.

Saudis near victory in battle for key Yemeni port

They also say the Houthis have been using the port to smuggle weapons through, although UN experts have said this is "unlikely" as incoming ships require UN permission and are randomly searched.

The UN and Western governments say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons ranging from assault rifles to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.

The coalition has blocked most ports and allowed supplies into Hodeida in co-ordination with the UN.

The air campaign and fighting have disrupted other supply lines which has triggered an economic crisis that makes food too expensive for many to afford.

Aid agencies and the UN evacuated international staff from the city before the offensive began.

Injured people who are able to flee have been driving onto Aden, about 195 miles away, after being treated at a hospital in Mocha on the way, according to the aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Battle for key port in Yemen begins amid warnings from aid agencies

Thousands remain trapped in the city and around the airport because of the fighting.

Relief worker Saber Wasel said: "Families are trapped inside and it is difficult leaving as they are coming under airstrikes and bombardment by both parties of the war.

"It was a hard night for citizens because of the intensity of the strikes and gunfire."

The coalition has implemented an air, sea and land embargo on Yemen since 2015.

The airstrikes and Houthi bombardment have left more than 10,000 people dead and two million displaced along with devastation of the country's infrastructure.

Many hospitals and health centres have been destroyed which has created a cholera epidemic. </s> SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Saudi-led forces fought to retake the international airport of Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida from the Shiite Houthi rebels, Yemeni officials and witnesses said on Saturday, as combat intensified for the starving nation's main gateway for food shipments.

With battles raging at the southern side of al-Hodeida International Airport, the military of Yemen's exiled government said it had entirely seized the facility, and that engineers were working to clear mines from nearby areas just south of the city of some 600,000 people on the Red Sea.

"The armed forces which are supported by the Arab coalition have freed the al-Hodeida International Airport from the Houthi militias and the engineering teams have started to clean the airport and its surroundings from mines and bombs," the military said on its official Twitter account.

Other government officials and witnesses later said coalition forces had not yet fully taken control of the airport. They said fighting was heavy just outside the airport gates.

Sadek Dawad, spokesman of the Republican Guards force loyal to the Saudis, said government forces had battled onto the airport grounds.

Dawad also said the southern gate of Hodeida city was captured by pro-coalition forces.

"The military operations to liberate the city of Hodeida will not be stopped until we secure the city and its strategic port and that won't last too long," he told The Associated Press.

Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who hold the country's capital of Sanaa, did not immediately acknowledge losing the airport.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite news channel aired footage it described as being from near Hodeida showing a burned-out truck, corpses of irregular fighters and a damaged Emirati armored vehicle. The Iranian-aligned fighters rifled through a military ledger from the vehicle before chanting their slogan: "Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews, victory to Islam!"

Yemeni officials and witnesses said forces from the United Arab Emirates-backed Amaleqa brigades, backed by air cover from the Saudi-led coalition, were heading to eastern Hodeida province to attempt to cut off the main road that links it with the capital, Sanaa.

The officials said if government forces capture the Kilo 16 Road they will trap the rebels in Hodeida and the western coast and prevent them from receiving supplies from the capital. The rebels are then expected to have no choice but to head to the northern province of Hajjah.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media and the witnesses for fear of reprisals.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said humanitarian agencies cannot reach the southern part of Hodeida as fighting escalated. It said in a statement that heavy airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition have moved confrontation lines deeper to the south.

United Nations special envoy Martin Griffiths, meanwhile arrived in Sanaa in an effort to broker a cease-fire.

The Saudi-led coalition began its assault Wednesday on Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine. Emirati forces are leading ground forces mixed with their own troops, irregular militiamen and soldiers backing Yemen's exiled government. Saudi Arabia has provided air support, with targeting guidance and refueling coming from the U.S.

International aid groups and the UN cautioned the Saudi-led coalition from launching the assault. Their fear is that a protracted fight could force a shutdown of Hodeida's port at a time when a halt in aid risks tipping millions into starvation. Some 70 percent of Yemen's food enters via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country's population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are already at risk of starving.

For its part, the Saudi-led coalition says it had no choice but to launch the assault as the port provided millions of dollars for the Houthis through customs controls. They also accuse the Houthis of using the port to smuggle weapons through, something a U.N. panels of experts described in January as "unlikely" as incoming ships require U.N. permission and are subject to random searches.

The U.N. and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons, from assault rifles to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.

The coalition has blocked most ports, letting supplies into Hodeida in coordination with the U.N. The air campaign and fighting have disrupted other supply lines, causing an economic crisis that makes food too expensive for many to afford.

Aid agencies and the U.N. evacuated international staff from the city ahead of the offensive. Some of the wounded able to flee are driving onto Aden, some 315 kilometers (195 miles) away, after being stabilized at a hospital in Mocha on the way, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said. The local hospital in Hodeida already is struggling to help the wounded, the group said.

Thousands remain besieged in the city and around the airport due to the fighting.

"Families are trapped inside and it is difficult leaving as they are coming under airstrikes and bombardment by both parties of the war," relief worker Saber Wasel told The Associated Press. "It was a hard night for citizens because of the intensity of the strikes and gunfire."

The Houthis seized control of Sanaa in September 2014, later pushing south toward the port city of Aden. The Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in March 2015 and has faced criticism for a campaign of airstrikes killing civilians and destroying hospitals and markets.

The Houthis meanwhile have laid land mines killing and wounding civilians, targeted religious minorities and imprisoned opponents.

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Yemeni official say Saudi-led forces have seized the airport in Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemeni official say Saudi-led forces have seized the airport in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida.

The military loyal to Yemen’s exiled government issued a statement Saturday morning saying that engineers now were trying to remove mines left by the Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge losing the airport.

Hodeida International Airport is on the south side of the city home to some 600,000. So far, fighting has yet to enter Hodeida’s downtown or its crucial port.

The Saudi-led coalition began its assault Wednesday on Hodeida, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine.

International aid groups and the United Nations have warned the fighting could affect food imports. </s> At least 20 people in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah have been killed in air raids carried out by a Saudi and UAE-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthi rebels, medical sources said.

The strikes on Thursday, which fell close to the city's main public hospital, al-Thawra, hit the strategic city's fishing port and fish market.

"The number of people killed in the two attacks has reached 20," a doctor in the Red Sea city told AFP news agency, with other medical sources putting the number of wounded admitted to hospital at 60.

Medical sources told the Reuters news agency that the death toll stood at 26, while the Houthi-affiliated SABA news agency put the number of fatalities at 30, adding that 50 others were wounded.

"Rescue workers told journalists how they saw body parts all over the fish market that was the target of the air strikes," said Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow, reporting from Djibouti.

"The fish market is just 20 metres away from the al-Thawra hospital, which is one of the handful of medical facilities that are still operational in Hodeidah."

Adow added that authorities in Hodeidah said these air strikes "were largely unexpected because both the Houthi fighters and the Saudi-UAE coalition had announced that they were going to cease hostilities in and around the port of Hodeidah to give UN peace efforts a chance".

Meanwhile, the International Red Cross which supports the al-Thawra hospital sent surgical supplies that will be enough to treat up to 50 patients who are in critical condition.

"These air strikes come at a time when aid agencies are warning of renewed outbreaks of diseases. The country's water and sanitation have been largely destroyed by these air strikes," said Adow.

Yemeni government forces launched an offensive to retake the strategic port city earlier in June with the help of a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

While the coalition has been able to retake Hodeidah's airport from the rebels, its port remains in the hands of the Iran-aligned movement.

Hodeidah has been under the control of the Houthis since 2014, along with other west coast ports and much of northern Yemen.

The city's seaport was responsible for delivering 70 percent of Yemen's imports - mostly humanitarian aid, food and fuel - before 2015. Yet, the Saudis say that the Houthis, who reportedly generate $30m to $40m a month in revenue from the port, are using it to smuggle in weapons from Iran.

The war in Yemen, the region's poorest country, started in 2014 after the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels seized control of the capital, Sanaa, and began pushing south towards the country's third-biggest city Aden.

Concerned by the rise of the Houthi rebels, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab states launched a military offensive in 2015 in the form of a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Since then, more than 10,000 people have been killed and at least 40,000 wounded, mostly from Saudi-led air raids.

In retaliation, the Houthis have launched dozens of missiles at the kingdom. Saudi authorities say over the past three years 90 ballistic missiles were fired by the rebels.

Multiple rounds of United Nations-brokered peace talks have all failed to achieve any breakthrough. </s> (Reuters) - Twenty six people were killed and 35 others were wounded in Saudi-led coalition air strikes on the fishing port and fish market in the Yemeni city of Hodeidah, Yemeni medical sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia and Sunni Muslim allies have been fighting in Yemen for three years against the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of north Yemen including the capital Sanaa and drove a Saudi-backed government into exile in 2014.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition. </s> Sana’a, June 16 (IANS) Yemeni forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that they have liberated the airport of the main port city of Hudaydah from Houthi rebels.

The military units have begun to clear the airfield of mines and explosive devices planted by the rebels, the BBC reported citing the Army as saying.

Following the development, Houthi spokesperson Mohamed Abdel Salam said on Twitter that the withdrawal of his fighters was part of a tactical strategy and as a consequence, the mercenaries entered the airport.

He added that his fighters captured 36 soldiers loyal to the internationally-backed Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is now in the coastal city of Aden, the government’s provisional capital.

The development took place on the fourth day of an offensive to seize the strategic city, located on the Red Sea coast with its port as one of the main entry points for essential supplies to the country, which is suffering the most pressing humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the UN.

Military and medical sources told Efe news that more than 300 personnel belonging to both the Houthis and Yemeni forces were killed in the last two days of the offensive, while more than 550 were injured.

Residents of the area said that they have heard explosions and shots since Saturday morning in the airfield to the south of the city, 10 km from the port of Hudaydah, the second largest in the country after the port of Aden.

They added that the government forces continued to forge ahead after the airport was captured in order to take control of the southern entrance of the city, where violent clashes were ongoing.

According to the residents, both sides made a safe corridor for 4,000 al-Manzar neighbourhood inhabitants after a woman and a man were killed and another 30 injured in clashes.

Since late 2014, Yemen remains immersed in a bloody civil war after Houthi rebels seized both its capital Sana’a and its northern and western regions.

The conflict intensified in March 2015 when the Saudi Arabia-led alliance intervened in Yemen. </s> Saudi-led forces heading an assault on Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida have seized control of its international airport, officials loyal to Yemen's exiled government said.

Engineers worked from Saturday morning to clear mines from areas around Hodeida International Airport, just south of the city of some 600,000 people on the Red Sea, the military of Yemen's exiled government said.

Yemen's Shi'Ite rebels known as Houthis, who hold the country's capital of Sanaa, did not immediately acknowledge losing the airport.

However, the Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite news channel aired footage it described as being from near Hodeida showing a burned-out truck, corpses of irregular fighters and a damaged Emirati armoured vehicle. The Iranian-aligned fighters rifled through a military ledger from the vehicle before chanting their slogan: "Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews, victory to Islam!"

The Saudi-led coalition began its assault on Hodeida on Wednesday, the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine. Emirati forces are leading ground forces mixed with their own troops, irregular militiamen and soldiers backing Yemen's exiled government. Saudi Arabia has provided air support.

International aid groups and the United Nations cautioned the Saudi-led coalition from launching the assault. Their fear is that a protracted fight could force a shutdown of Hodeida's port at a time when a halt in aid risks tipping millions into starvation. Some 70 per cent of Yemen's food enters via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country's population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are already at risk of starving.

For its part, the Saudi-led coalition says it had no choice but to launch the assault as the port provided millions of dollars for the Houthis through customs controls. They also accuse the Houthis of using the port to smuggle weapons through, something a UN panels of experts described in January as "unlikely."

The UN and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons, from assault rifles to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.

The coalition has blocked most ports, letting supplies into Hodeida in coordination with the UN The air campaign and fighting have disrupted other supply lines, causing an economic crisis that makes food too expensive for many to afford. </s> HODEIDAH, Yemen – The Saudi-led coalition spokesman accused Houthi militia of being behind an attack that killed and wounded dozens of civilians in Hodeidah in Yemen on Thursday, adding the coalition did not carry out any operations in the port city.

Earlier on Thursday, medical sources and aid agencies said an air strikes by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia on a fishing port and fish market in Hodeidah killed 26 people and wounded 50 others.

“The coalition follows a strict and transparent approach based on the rules of international law. We pursue any allegations and if there is any responsibility we will hold it transparently,” Colonel Turki al-Malki told Al Arabiya television.

“Coalition did not carry out any operations in Hodeidah today...Houthi militia are behind killing of civilians in Hodeidah on today,” he added.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Sunni Muslim allies have been fighting in Yemen with Western backing for more than three years against the Iran-aligned Houthis.

The Houthis control much of north Yemen including the capital Sanaa and drove its Saudi-backed government into exile in 2014.

The strikes come as the United Nations tries to secure a ceasefire agreement between the warring sides.

Yemen’s Houthi group said on Tuesday it was unilaterally halting attacks in the Red Sea for two weeks to support peace efforts, a few days after Saudi Arabia suspended oil exports through a strategic Red Sea channel following Houthi attacks on crude tankers on 25 July.

Hodeidah port is the main conduit for supplies to Yemen, where around 8.4 million people are believed by aid workers to be on the verge of starvation.

The Saudi-led alliance says capturing Hodeidah would cut off the main supply line of the Houthis and force the group to the negotiating table, but it has made no major gains since it launched the offensive on 12 June.

The Houthis have offered to hand over management of the port to the world body, according to the United Nations, but the coalition says the group must quit the western coast.
Saudi Arabian-led coalition troops seize control of Hodeida International Airport in Al Hudaydah after driving out Houthi forces. Around 280 people have been reportedly killed in the last four days inside the Yemeni port city.