Saudi-Led Coalition Conducts Airstrikes on Yemen's Hudaydah

Date: 17 June 2018 - 21:25

News ID: ۵۴۰۵۸

ADEN (Dispatches) – A Saudi-led coalition conducted airstrikes on Yemen’s Hudaydah airport on Sunday to support forces trying to seize control from Houthi fighters, Saudi and Houthi-run media reported.
Warplanes carried out five strikes on the port city of Hudaydah, a lifeline to millions of Yemenis, according to SABA, the official Houthi news agency. Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya also reported strikes on the airport.
Ground troops, including United Arab Emiratis, Sudanese and Yemenis from various factions, surrounded the main airport compound on Saturday, said a source in the coalition-allied Yemeni military.
"We have lived in a state of terror for three days because we are in a neighborhood close to the airport,” said resident Khaled Ateeq, 38.
In other reports, Yemen's Houthi fighters dismissed reports that Saudi-led forces have seized the airport in the port city of Hudaydah, saying the aggressors are on the retreat on all front lines.
Militants and foreign mercenaries armed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are attempting to capture the well-defended city and push the Houthis out of their sole Red Sea port in the biggest battle of the war.
"A battle of attrition awaits the Saudi alliance which it cannot withstand. The Saudi coalition will not win the battle in Hudaydah," Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam told Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV.
Mohammed al-Sharif, deputy head of Yemen's civil aviation, said images circulated online about the airport had been taken in October 2016.
A fence shown as proof of the airport's capture is actually situated near the al-Durayhimi district, on a piece of land belonging to a Yemeni lawmaker, the official Saba news agency quoted him as saying.
Ahmed Taresh, the head of Hudaydah airport, also denied news of the airport's capture, but said that it has been completely destroyed in airstrikes conducted by the Saudi-led coalition.
Abdulsalam warned that the Saudi-UAE offensive against the port city would undermine chances for a peaceful settlement of the Yemen crisis.
The rebuttals came after the media office of the Saudi-backed Yemeni forces loyal to ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi said on Twitter that they had "freed Hudaydah international airport from the grip of" the Houthis.
Reports on Sunday said Saudi-backed forces had been surrounded in the al-Durayhimi Bayt al-Faqih district and at least 40 Saudi mercenaries killed by Yemeni sniper fire over the past two days.
Al-Mayadeen, meanwhile, cited informed sources as saying that the invading forces had retreated from all fronts in Hudaydah's west.
A Yemeni military source said clashes had left 50 Saudi-backed forces dead and destroyed 13 of their armored vehicles in southern Hudaydah.
Yemeni forces have also managed to confiscate a French or American ship off Hudaydah's coast, president of the Houthi Revolutionary Committee Mohammed Ali al-Houthi tweeted.

The Saudi-led coalition conducts airstrikes on Yemen’s Hudaydah airport to support forces trying to seize control from Houthi fighters.