Clashes erupted in Yemen’s Hodeidah as pro-coalition forces hand over land to the Houthis.

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© Reuters. Cars and motorbikes can be seen through one of the windshields of cars as they pass by a building damaged by the clashes in the port city of Hodeidah in the Red Sea, Yemen, on November 13, 2021. REUTERS / Manal Qaed
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ADEN (Reuters) – Yemen’s war parties clashed Saturday night south of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah after Iranian-backed Houthi fighters marched on territory leased by forces allied to a Saudi-led coalition, military sources and witnesses said.
Yemeni forces backed by the United Arab Emirates announced on Friday that they were remodeling from Yemen’s main western port, a UN monitoring mission and the government said they had no prior warning.
The Saudi-backed government and the Houthis of Iran, which owns the city of Hodeidah, agreed in 2018 to a largely UN-sponsored treaty in Hodeida, with both sides withdrawing troops, halted in 2019.
Coalition warplanes launched airstrikes in the Al Faza area south of Hodeidah, while Houthi fighters fought forces backed by the BAC until midnight, both military sources and residents said.
Al Faza is 15 kilometers from the Al-Khokhat under the coalition, where hundreds of Yemenis have fled after Houthi’s advance.
A UN mission overseeing the Hodeidah treaty, the UNMHA, called on both sides to ensure the safety of civilians, “who had not been notified in advance of the movements.” The Saudi-backed government’s team for UNMHA also said it had no prior knowledge.
As a sign of differences between pro-coalition forces, Tiama fighters on the Red Sea coastal plain condemned the “unjustified withdrawal” on Sunday.
RENEWAL
It was unclear whether the retreat in Hodeidah was linked to what the Saudi-led alliance described as a reshuffle in southern Yemen, where sources said the Saudi army had left a main base in Aden, the seat of the caretaker government.
The Saudi foreign minister, in an interview with France 24 television on Saturday, reiterated the coalition’s denial that the Saudi army was withdrawing, “saying it continues to have strong support for the Yemeni government and (coalition) forces.”
The alliance intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis removed the government from the capital Sanaa. The conflict is seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system and a foreign attack.
Washington is pressuring Riyadh to lift the coalition blockade of Houthi-dependent ports, a condition of the ceasefire talks group.
Hodeidah is a major entry point for trade goods and aid flows, and is the lifeline for millions suffering from hunger, which the UN describes as the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.
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