Sana’a: Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition hit the Al Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeida on Tuesday, destroying cranes and warehouses in the main entry point for aid supplies to Yemen’s north.
Rival factions also battled further south overnight in Yemen’s third city, Taiz, Arab television stations reported, as local militias opposed to Al Houthis attempted to consolidate recent advances on it.
The Iranian-allied Al Houthis seized Yemen’s capital Sana’a last September in what they called a revolution against a corrupt government, then took over much of the country.
The Saudi-backed President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled to the southern port of Aden, then escaped to Riyadh in March. Gulf Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the conflict to push back what they see as spreading Iranian influence in their backyard.
Loyalist forces, backed by Gulf Arab planes, weapons and training, have been on the offensive since breaking out of Aden last month, claiming a string of gains against the Al Houthis.
The war has killed more than 4,300 people, many of them civilians, and spread disease and hunger in one of the Arab world’s poorest states.
Hodeida, lying about 150km due west of Sana’a, has become a focal point of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, which the International Committee of the Red Cross said last week was critical.
Officials said the latest raids destroyed the port’s four cranes and also hit warehouses, bringing work to a halt. There was no information on what was in the warehouses.
The coalition, in which the UAE also plays a big military role, has accused the Al Houthis of commandeering aid shipments for war use.
Anti-Al Houthi groups have pushed the northern militia out of some southern provinces since late July, but while that has allowed aid to reach Aden in the south, the humanitarian crisis elsewhere remains critical.
Besides advancing from the south, coalition-backed forces are also fighting Al Houthis and Saleh’s troops on a second front around Marib, northeast of Sana’a.
As well as retaining a foothold in Taiz, the Al Houthis and allied army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh control the northern highlands and Red Sea coastal plain as far south as Ibb, where coalition-backed forces advanced last week.
Ibb is about 50km north of Taiz and 200km southeast of Hodeida.
Saudi Arabia fears advances by Al Houthis would be used by its main regional foe Iran to encircle Gulf states and undermine their security.
Meanwhile, Al Houthis’ storming of the UAE embassy in Sana’a resulted in a wave of condemnation from Arab states.
The Arab League, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain condemned the act, with the Arab League’s Secretary-General Nabeel Al Arabi calling it “an act of terrorism”.
