Saudi-UAE Air Raids Target Yemen’s Hodaida

Saudi-UAE coalition airstrikes on Yemen’s Hodaida province have killed and wounded several people, medical sources said.

A spokesperson from the Houthi-affiliated health ministry said Tuesday’s attacks on the city of Duraihami killed at least 13 civilians and injured 24 others, Al Jazeera reported.

Doctor Youssef al-Hadri said the latest attacks hit a heavily populated area, damaging civilian infrastructure including medical facilities and mosques.  

Hadri added that medics from the International Committee of the Red Cross were being prevented from entering the city.

ICRC for its part expressed concern with recent developments in the city and said it was still assessing the extent of the damage.

Fighting between Houthi forces and militants backed by the Saudi-UAE coalition, along the eastern outskirts of Duraihami city has intensified in recent weeks as the two Persian Gulf nations look to seize control of the strategic province.

Hodaida 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% of Yemen’s imports—mostly humanitarian aid, food and fuel—before 2015.

The war in Yemen, the region’s poorest country, started in 2014 after the Houthi forces seized control of the capital Sanaa, and began pushing south toward the country’s third-biggest city Aden.

Concerned by the rise of the Houthi forces, 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 ousted government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

According to the UN, at least 10,000 people have been killed in the three-year war—a death toll that has not been updated in years and is certain to be far higher.

CAPTION: The latest attacks hit a heavily populated area, damaging civilian infrastructure including medical facilities and mosques.