{"id":140921,"date":"2018-06-14T02:50:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T02:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/yemen-war-fighting-rages-over-vital-port-of-hudaydah\/"},"modified":"2018-06-14T02:50:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T02:50:54","slug":"yemen-war-fighting-rages-over-vital-port-of-hudaydah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/yemen-war-fighting-rages-over-vital-port-of-hudaydah\/","title":{"rendered":"Yemen war: Fighting rages over vital port of Hudaydah"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition take position during an attack on the port city of Hudaydah, Yemen, 13 June 2018\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/15195\/production\/_102012468_047419648.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  EPA<figcaption>Image caption                                      The assault began after Houthi rebels ignored a deadline to withdraw from Hudaydah                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Fierce fighting has been reported after pro-government forces in Yemen, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, launched an offensive on the rebel-held city of Hudaydah, a key port for aid supplies.<\/p>\n<p>The United Arab Emirates confirmed of its four soldiers had been killed and 22 Houthi rebels reportedly also died.<\/p>\n<p>Fighting raged mainly near the city&#039;s airport and the al-Durayhmi area south of the city, media reports say.<\/p>\n<p>The UN Security Council is to hold urgent talks on Yemen on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>It is the first time the Saudi-led coalition of mostly Gulf states has tried to capture such a well-defended major city in Yemen.<\/p>\n<p>About eight million people are at risk of starvation in the war-torn country and the coastal city is where most aid arrives for people in rebel-held areas. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yemen&#039;s conflict in 400 words<\/li>\n<li>Who is fighting whom?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Emirati news agency Wam said attacking forces had managed to &quot;liberate areas... in the surroundings of the airport&quot; and captured or killed &quot;dozens&quot; of Iranian-backed Houthis.<\/p>\n<p>It reported the &quot;martyrdom&quot; of the four Emirati soldiers but did not give further details of the fighting. <\/p>\n<p>Medical sources in the region said 22 Houthi fighters had been killed in coalition strikes.<\/p>\n<p>Coalition sources say 18 air strikes were carried out on Houthi positions on the outskirts of Hudaydah on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p061qyc3.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionFormer child soldiers, a landmine survivor and an internally displaced child tell their stories<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Houthi rebels, meanwhile, said they had struck a coalition warship with missiles although there was no confirmation of this.<\/p>\n<p>The offensive, which analysts say could be the biggest battle so far in the Yemeni civil war, has raised fears of mass casualties among the city&#039;s 400,000 population.<\/p>\n<p>However, coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said they wanted to avoid a street war with the Houthis &quot;for the safety of civilians&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>He told al-Hadath TV that the aims were to win control of the airport and seaport as well as the main road leading to the capital of Sanaa. <\/p>\n<p>Thursday&#039;s meeting of the UN Security Council was called by Britain amid fears of a humanitarian crisis in Hudaydah.<\/p>\n<p>The pro-government assault began after Houthi rebels ignored a deadline to withdraw.<\/p>\n<p>Civil war has raged in Yemen since late 2014, when the Houthis and allied forces seized north-western parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa, and eventually forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Alarmed by the rise of a group they saw as an Iranian Shia Muslim proxy, Saudi Arabia and eight other Sunni Arab states launched a military campaign in March 2015 to restore Mr Hadi&#039;s government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright EPAImage caption The assault began after Houthi rebels ignored a deadline to withdraw from Hudaydah Fierce fighting has been reported after pro-government forces in Yemen, backed by a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}