Yemen: Saudi-Led Coalition Starts Assault on Al-Hudaydah, Revolutionaries Target Warships
Local Editor
Ignoring the international and humanitarian cries against the catastrophic repercussions of an attack on Yemen's Al-Hudaydah port, US-Saudi backed forces started an aggression on the country's Red Sea port.
On Wednesday morning, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV network announced the beginning of the the s-called Al-Hudaydah operation, which the UN has warned could cause up to 250,000 deaths.
The Saudi-led military alliance is providing air cover to the operation.
The United Arab Emirates [UAE], a key member of the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen, had set a Tuesday deadline for the Yemeni Ansarullah movement to pull out of Al-Hudaydah. The port city serves as a lifeline for aid delivery to the war-stricken country.
"These are the last and final hours to get unconditional guarantees that the Houthis will leave the port," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told Reuters on Tuesday.
In response, Ansarullah revolutionaries pledged strong resistance in the face of the assault, which is said to be the largest of its kind since the onset of the war in early 2015.
Shortly after the operation was launched, the Yemeni National Salvation Government's spokesman, Abdulsalam Jaber, said Yemeni armed forces had targeted a UAE warship off the country's western coast.
Yemen's Supreme Revolutionary Committee said the warship was destroyed in the counter-attack, adding that Saudi-led helicopters rushed to save the forces aboard the vessel, which is now burning near Yemen's coastline.
A second battleship left the site following the incident, it added.
Meanwhile, according to The Wall Street Journal, there are signs that the US military is deepening its role in the assault on Al-Hudaydah, in spite of UN warnings of massive human casualties. Washington, the paper says, is providing its Persian Gulf allies with intelligence on airstrike targets in the port.
It cited American military officials as saying that the US is helping the UAE develop a list of targets meant to be off limits for airstrikes on Al-Hudaydah, with an apparent aim to minimize civilian casualties.
The UN and other aid groups have over the past days withdrawn their staff members from the port city in the wake of UAE threats.
The United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF] has also raised alarm over the impact of the attack on children in Al-Hudaydah and beyond.
"There are 11 million children in need of humanitarian aid in this war-torn country. Choking off this lifeline will have devastating consequences for every one of them," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore said in a statement on Tuesday.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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