KHOKHA, Yemen: The battle for a major rebel-controlled port in Yemen has left more than 100 soldiers and insurgents dead in less than a week, medics and military sources said Saturday.Yemeni forces are fighting to close in on the Red Sea port of Hodeida, the main conduit for humanitarian supplies into a country where 22 million people are in dire need of food aid.Medics in the southern Aden governorate, where the Yemeni government is based, said they had received the bodies of 52 people, including 20 soldiers, between Friday and Saturday, bringing the toll to at least 110 killed in clashes since Wednesday.The remainder appeared to be rebels, the medics said.Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in the pro-government military coalition said on Saturday the Huthi rebels had ambushed a military convoy in the coastal district of al-Durayhmi in Hodeida governorate.Loyalist fighters, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, last week announced they had launched an operation to enter Hodeida city and seize the rebel-held port.Hodeida lies 230 kilometres from the capital Sanaa, which the Iran-backed Huthis seized in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen the following year.The campaign, which continues to this day, aims to restore power to the internationally recognised government of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
06-03-2018, 07:19 PM
Death toll tops 100 in fight for key Yemen port
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