(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> Warring sides in Yemen's conflict have agreed to a cease-fire for the key port city of Hudaydah.aimed at ending nearly four years of civil war.The Red Sea port city of Hudaydah is the main lifeline for two-thirds of the country, andThe Yemeni government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia and its military allies, has been battling the Iran-backed Huthi rebels for nearly four years.Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which has killed over 10,000 people and created what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Pro-government forces recently launched a major offensive against Houthi rebels in Yemen

At least 20 people in the rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hudaydah have been killed in air strikes blamed on the Saudi-led coalition.

The strikes hit a fish market and the entrance to a nearby hospital, eyewitnesses and medics said.

However a Saudi spokesman said the coalition had not flown over Hudaydah, blaming the attack on rebels instead.

Six weeks ago, the Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive to drive Houthi rebels out of the city.

Aid agencies have previously warned that any disruption to vital supplies coming through the key Red Sea port could affect millions of Yemenis, who rely on them to survive.

The Red Cross tweeted that it was sending medical supplies to help treat those severely wounded in Thursday's attack.

Among those killed or injured in Thursday's strikes were local fishermen who were attending the market on the sea front.

Eyewitnesses described seeing debris and two damaged ambulances close to a local hospital.

"The number of people killed in the two attacks has reached 20," a doctor at Hudaydah's main al-Thawra hospital told AFP news agency, adding that at least 60 people had been admitted with injuries.

Other reports put the death toll higher.

For a little more than three years, Yemen has been locked in a seemingly intractable civil war that has killed nearly 10,000 people - two-thirds of them civilians - and pushed millions to the brink of starvation, according to the United Nations.

Fighting began in 2014 when the Houthi Shia Muslim rebel movement took advantage of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi's weakness and seized control of northern Saada province and neighbouring areas. The Houthis went on to take the capital Sanaa, forcing Mr Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The conflict escalated dramatically in March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and eight other mostly Sunni Arab states - backed by the US, UK, and France - began air strikes against the Houthis, with the declared aim of restoring Mr Hadi's government.

Speaking to the BBC last month, Mr Hadi said that military intervention by the Saudi-led coalition had gone on longer than expected, but said that the alternative option was far worse. </s> At least 17 people have been killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a marketplace in the town of Al Hudaydah in Yemen, medics told an RT stringer.More than 12 people were injured, with the medics warning that the death toll may rise to over two dozen.According to AFP,The militants allegedly fled to the market to escape the bombardment, but were still targeted by the warplanes.A military source close to Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi told AFP that the rebels used civilians as "human shields."Al-Masirah TV channel, controlled by the Houthis, reported that 27 people were killed and dozens wounded in the attack.The Red Sea port of Al Hudaydah is Yemen's fourth-largest city, with a population of around 400,000, located in the west of the country.Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has headed an international military coalition carrying out an unrelenting campaign of airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported in October that the Saudi coalition, "with direct military support from the US and assistance from the UK," conducted at least 58 "unlawful airstrikes."In late February, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, said that around 10,000 people have been killed in the country since Saudi Arabia intervened, with 7 million people close to starvation.According to World Health Organization figures, more than 7,400 people have been killed, with around 1,400 of them being children. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Former child soldiers, a landmine survivor and an internally displaced child tell their stories

Pro-government forces in Yemen, backed by Saudi Arabia, have begun attacking a key port held by rebel fighters.

The coastal city of Hudaydah is where most of the aid arrives for people in Yemen's rebel-held areas. Agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe.

About eight million people are at risk of starvation in the war-torn country.

Pro-government strikes began after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels ignored a deadline to withdraw by midnight (21:00 GMT on Tuesday).

It is the first time the Saudi-led coalition of mostly Gulf states has tried to capture such a well-defended major city in Yemen.

The UN Security Council is expected to meet to discuss the situation on Thursday, following a request from the UK.

The conflict in Yemen has raged since late 2014, when the Houthis and allied forces seized north-western parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa, and eventually forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.

Alarmed by the rise of a group they saw as an Iranian proxy, Saudi Arabia and eight other Sunni Arab states launched a military campaign in March 2015 to restore Mr Hadi's government.

Why does Hudaydah matter?

The Saudi-led coalition has accused the rebels of using Hudaydah to smuggle in Iranian weapons. Both Iran and the rebels deny this.

The coalition says victory could break the stalemate in the war and force the Houthis to the negotiating table.

But the port is a lifeline for the majority of Yemen's population and the UN had been trying to get parties to the conflict to reach a deal that would avert an attack.

An estimated 600,000 people live in the area. Robert Mardini, regional head for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said the attack was "likely to exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation".

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A cholera outbreak has killed thousands of people in Yemen, including many in Hudaydah

On Friday, UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Yemen Lise Grande warned: "In a prolonged worst case, we fear that as many as 250,000 people may lose everything - even their lives."

Read more on why the battle for Hudaydah matters.

How have operations unfolded?

On Tuesday, the exiled government said its forces and allied Saudi-led troops launched their assault after "exhausting all peaceful and political means".

Coalition warplanes and warships later began bombarding Houthi positions. An alliance of Yemeni forces supporting the internationally recognised government is leading the ground assault.

The Saudi-owned Al Arabiya network reported "intense and concentrated" strikes near the port.

"The liberation of Hudaydah port is a turning point in our struggle to recapture Yemen from the militias that hijacked it to serve foreign agendas," the exiled government said.

The rebels have said they will "confront the coalition of aggression on all fronts".

Battle that threatens to push people off the brink

By BBC correspondent Nawal Al-Maghafi

For the last three years the Saudi-led coalition hasn't made any major advances. But in the last few weeks, the rebel side has lost a lot of fighters and commanders. The coalition sees a window of opportunity and is desperate to gain ground.

It has argued repeatedly that a Hudaydah offensive can be mounted quickly and effectively, leaving the port functioning at a higher capacity. But if the battle is prolonged, it will leave millions of Yemenis without food, fuel and other vital supplies.

In reality, families in Hudaydah are already starving and desperately relying on humanitarian aid. Reporting from the city last year, I saw children who were severely undeveloped, their ribs protruding.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How children are starving in Yemen's war

They were living off a peanut-based paste provided by aid agencies. The hospitals were desperately trying to do what they could but were overwhelmed by cases of malnutrition and cholera.

Now this battle threatens to push these people off the brink. Meanwhile, the possibility of the warring sides returning to the negotiating table seems even more remote.

How serious is the humanitarian crisis?

About 10,000 people - two-thirds of them civilians - have been killed in the fighting since March 2015, according to the UN.

The vast majority of the casualties have been the result of coalition air strikes. The UN's figures do not include those who have died of disease and malnutrition.

The conflict and a partial blockade by the coalition have also left 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid. It has created the world's largest food emergency and led to a cholera outbreak that is thought to have killed 2,290 people.

In a tweet, the UN's envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, called on both sides to end the fighting and find a negotiated settlement. </s> The Saudi-led coalition forces on Wednesday launched a major military operation to recapture Yemeni port of Al-Hudaydah from Shia Houthi rebels.

“The operation to recapture Al-Hudaydah city and port has begun,” Yemeni military spokesman Abdullah al-Shuabi said.

Sounds of explosions and bombing were heard in the southern outskirts of the port city by Saudi-led coalition warplanes and warships.

Al-Shuabi said government forces have captured major military sites at the city’s southern entrance.

He said scores of Houthi rebels had surrendered themselves during the first hours of the offensive.

There was no comment from the Shia Houthi group on the claim.

In a statement, the Yemeni government said it had consumed all peaceful and political means to dislodge Houthi rebels from the strategic port.

“The liberation of Al-Hudaydah port is a turning point in our struggle to recapture Yemen from the militias that hijacked it to serve foreign agendas,” it said in the statement cited by the official Saba news agency.

“The liberation of the port is the start of the fall of the Houthi militia and will secure marine shipping in Bab al-Mandab strait and cut off the hands of Iran, which has long drowned Yemen in weapons that shed precious Yemeni blood,” it added.

Al-Hudaydah port is a vital supply line through which as much as 80 percent of humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Yemen goes through.

Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014, when the Shia Houthi group overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

The ongoing violence has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as one of “the worst humanitarian disasters in modern times”. </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> An airstrike launched by the Saudi-led coalition has reportedly killed at least 26 people and injured dozens of civilians in the vicinity of a general hospital in Hodeidah, Yemen.Footage from the scene of the alleged bombing shown by Yemen's Almasirah television station, which is linked to the Houthi rebels, showed what appeared to be bodies of multiple people covered by blankets., local freelance journalist Ahmad Algohbary reported.Algohbary said. Reuters sites local medical sources as saying that 26 people were killed and 35 others injured on Thursday in coalition attacks on Hudaydah port and the fishing market.The Saudi-led coalition has denied the allegations that it was behind the deadly raid on the hospital, laying the blame on Houthi rebels. Coalition spokesmanYoussef al-Hadri, a spokesman for the Houthi-affiliated Health Ministry, called the alleged bombing a "war crime" speaking to the German press agency DPA.Hodeidah, a port city held by the Houthi rebels, is besieged by the Riyadh-led coalition trying to put ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi back in power in Yemen. The intervention has lasted for over three years and caused what the UN calls world's largest humanitarian disaster witnessed today. </s> At least 20 civilians were reportedly killed and dozens more hurt in Saudi air strikes. The Yemeni Red Cross said they were sending medical aid to the area after the vicinity of a local hospital was targeted.

According to the pro-Houthi Al Masirah broadcaster, more than 20 bodies of victims were transported to a military hospital. A spokesperson for the Houthi Healthcare Ministry said that the airstrike targeted ambulance cars at the entrance of the hospital.

On June 13, the Yemeni government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, launched an offensive to seize the port of Al Hudaydah from the Shia Houthi rebels. The operation continues despite the UN warnings of a possible humanitarian catastrophe. The UN has estimated that 330,610 people fled the city from June 1 to July 24.

Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement for several years. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
Days of heavy fighting between Houthi and Saudi-led coalition forces around the port city of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, leave at least 150 people dead.