Saudi Arabia-led forces heading an assault on Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida seized control of its international airport on Saturday, officials loyal to Yemen’s exiled government said.
Engineers worked to clear mines from areas around Hodeida International Airport, just south of the city of some 6,00,000 people on the Red Sea, the military of Yemen’s exiled government said.
“The armed forces which are supported by the Arab coalition have freed the al-Hodeida International Airport from the Houthi militias and the engineering teams have started to clean the airport and its surroundings from mines and bombs,” the military said on its official Twitter account.
Other government officials and witnesses later said coalition forces had not yet completely taken control of the airport.
They said fighting was heavy just outside the airport gates.
Sadek Dawad, the spokesman of the Republican Guards force loyal to the Saudis, said government forces had attacked onto the airport grounds.
Mr. Dawad also said the southern gate of Hodeida city was seized by pro-coalition forces.
“The military operations to liberate the city of Hodeida will not be stopped until we secure the city and its strategic port and that won’t last too long,” he said.
Yemen’s Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who hold the country’s capital of Sanaa, did not immediately acknowledge losing the airport.
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The Houthi-run Al Masirah satellite news channel aired footage it described as being from near Hodeida showing a burned-out truck, corpses of irregular fighters and a damaged Emirati armoured vehicle.
Yemeni officials and witnesses said forces from the UAE-backed Amaleqa brigades, backed by air cover from the Saudi-led coalition, were heading to eastern Hodeida province to attempt to cut off the main road that links it with the capital, Sanaa.
The officials said if government forces capture the Kilo 16 Road, they will trap the rebels in Hodeida and the western coast and prevent them from receiving supplies from the capital.
UN special envoy Martin Griffiths, meanwhile arrived in Sanaa in an effort to broker a ceasefire between the two groups.
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