At least 30 rebels and nine members of the government forces were killed in heavy fighting today near the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, according to France Presse, citing military and medical sources.
The fighting is taking place two kilometers from the entrance to the airport at the southern exit from Hodeidah, on the second day of the offensive by government forces on the Red Sea port through which 70 percent of the food and most of the humanitarian aid enters the country on the brink of starvation.
The international coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which supports the government of Yemen in the civil war, launched an attack on Hodeida yesterday with the aim of taking control of the city from the Shiite rebels of the Houthi movement.
Today, the Houthis offered fierce resistance to the government forces, and their snipers killed and wounded many soldiers, according to members of the rescue services.
Government forces captured the town 20 kilometers south of Hodeida today, and fierce clashes and airstrikes continued, according to the Associated Press.
The biggest offensive in the three-year civil war in the Arab world's poorest country has raised concerns that Yemen's humanitarian disaster could deepen.
About two-thirds of Yemen's 27 million citizens depend on humanitarian aid, and 8,4 million are already on the brink of starvation.
The United Nations and international aid agencies have previously warned Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) not to launch an attack on Houthi rebels, fearing the closure of the port of Hodeidah, at a time when an interruption in the delivery of aid would mean starvation for millions of people.
However, the UAE ambassador to the UN agencies in Geneva, Obaid Salem al-Zabi, said that the international coalition had no other choice because it had to prevent the rebels from smuggling missiles through the port.
His statement contradicts a report by UN experts who in January said it was "unlikely" that the Houthis are using Hodeidah to smuggle weapons.
Western countries claim that Iran supplies the rebels with weapons ranging from rifles to ballistic missiles that they fire deep into Saudi Arabian territory. According to officials from Riyadh, the Houthis have so far fired more than 150 ballistic missiles at the territory of Saudi Arabia.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said today that the port of Hodeida remains open, despite "heavy airstrikes in areas south of the city of Hodeida".
"So far, there are no reports of direct attacks on the city of Hodeida itself, despite the presence of planes in the sky," the statement said.
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