Many paid fighters fall dead , wounded in Hodeidah

YemenExtra

Y.A

Over 10 U.S backed -Saudi-led coalition’s paid fighters were killed and others injured as Yemeni army forces on Monday hit their gatherings and fortifications with artillery shelling  in Hodeidah province, a military official told YemenExtra.

The shelling targeted the paid fighters ’s gatherings and fortifications in Jabaliah area of Western coast front, added the official.

On Aug.23, at least 31 civilians, mostly children, have been killed after a Saudi-led airstrike hit their vehicle in Yemen’s Hodeidah province, only two weeks after a strike by the invading military coalition hit a school bus in the impoverished country and killed scores of Yemeni children.

The US-Saudi-led coalition  launched an offensive on Hodeidah on 12 June in the largest battle of the war that the United Nations fears risks triggering a famine in Yemen where an estimated 8.4 million people are on the verge of starvation. Recently, It has been paused for peace talks, but no deal has been struck leaving Yemenis pessimistic over a viable political process.

Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi(Ansarallah)  movement, which is the main force that faces the coallition, said on a TV speech ,” The decision of invading the Yemeni ,western coast, has been taken and adopted by the United States of America,noting that the Saudis are trying to abolish Yemen’s freedom,” stressing that it was the people of Yemen’s right to defend their country.

The Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is the southern entrance to the Red Sea, is one of the world’s key shipping lanes for crude oil and allows crude exports into the European market.

The United Nations said more than 350,000 people have been displaced from the strategic Red Sea port town of Hudaydah in western Yemen since June.Deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, said during a press conference on Monday that violent clashes have erupted in the city over the past few days, especially in the Ad Durayhimi district.He added that emergency humanitarian assistance has already been provided to more than 90 per cent of those displaced.