Legitimate Yemeni forces, backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, captured on Wednesday Hodeidah airport from the Iran-backed Houthi militias.
Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki told Al Arabiya television that the alliance seized the airport on Wednesday and was now destroying nearby Houthi fortifications. He accused the group of placing tanks inside residential areas. The coalition has repeatedly accused the militias of using civilians as human shields.
Coalition aircraft were bombing Houthi positions on roads leading to the airport as the group dug in against an onslaught by the Arab alliance to take the city, the Houthis’ main port.
“Hodeidah port is operating as normal and the movement of ships is normal,” Maliki said. “We have humanitarian and development plans for when we liberate the city.”
"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 distributed by the United Arab Emirates' official WAM news agency.
UAE State Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Gargash tweeted that the "liberation of Hodeidah is the beginning to ending the war.
"The choice in Yemen is between the state and militia, between order and violence, between peace and war," he wrote.
At least 156 Houthis were killed in the fight for the airport, according to Hodeidah hospital sources.
The legitimate forces and Arab coalition launched a week ago operation Golden Victory to liberate Hodeidah from the Houthis. They pledged a swift operation to minimize civilian casualties and avoid disrupting vital aid to millions of Yemenis via the Red Sea port.
UN envoy Martin Griffiths held four days of talks in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa in a bid to avert an all-out battle for the city but flew out on Tuesday without announcing any breakthrough.
Saudi Arabia accuses the Houthis of using Hodeidah’s port to smuggle in Iranian-made weapons, including missiles that have been fired at Saudi cities.
The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday put on display weapons and military gear that proves Iran’s involvement in supporting the Houthi militias in Yemen.
The weapons were captured by the Arab coalition forces in Yemen.
Weapons shown to reporters in Abu Dhabi and later at an Emirati military base on a government-sponsored tour included drones, a sniper rifle, roadside bombs disguised as rocks and even a "drone boat," which had been filled with explosives that failed to detonate.
The officials showed Iranian-labeled components inside of equipment used to produce and load fuel for the rockets the Houthis have fired across the border at Saudi Arabia.
.png?w=600)
