Yemen pro-govt forces seize Hodeida airport from rebels

KHOKHA: Yemeni forces seized Hodeida airport on Wednesday in a major step towards retaking the rebel-held port city after a week of fighting that has left nearly 350 people dead.

Fresh clashes later erupted between UAE-backed government forces and the Iran-allied rebels on a road linking the airport to Hodeida port on the Red Sea coast, a Yemeni army source said.

The city, a crucial entrypoint for imports and humanitarian aid, is the target of a massive operation launched last week by a Saudi-led coalition fighting on the side of the government. Pro-government forces announced the capture of Hodeida airport on Wednesday morning, a day after breaking through the perimeter fence. “The airport was completely cleared, Thank God, and is under control,” the coalition commander for the Red Sea coast, Abdul Salaam al-Shehi, said in a video posted Wednesday by the United Arab Emirates’ official WAM news agency. At least 156 Huthis and 28 soldiers were killed in the fight for the airport, according to Hodeida hospital sources. That raised the death toll in the week-old battle for the city to 348. No civilian casualties have yet been confirmed. On June 13, Yemen’s army and its allies launched their offensive to clear Hodeida of rebel fighters who have held it since 2014, raising UN concerns for vital aid shipments and food imports through the city’s docks. The airport is disused but housed a major rebel base just inland from the coast road into the city from the south. It lies eight kilometres (five miles) from the city’s port, through which three-quarters of Yemen’s imports pass, providing a lifeline for some 22 million people dependent on aid. UN envoy Martin Griffiths held four days of talks in the rebel-held capital Sanaa in a bid to avert an all-out battle for the city but flew out on Tuesday without announcing any breakthrough.