Air strike kills four in Yemen's Hodeida


Four people were killed yesterday in an air strike that targeted a radio station in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeida, residents and medical sources told Reuters. The four were employees of the radio station, called Almaraweah, they said.

The strike came as a Saudi-led military coalition resumed last week an offensive to capture Hodeida, the main port in northern Yemen and the gateway for imports to the capital Sanaa. Both cities are under the control of Yemen's Houthi group. The coalition could not be reached immediately for comment.

Yemeni forces backed by the Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition seized last week the main road linking Hodeida to Sanaa, a few days after the collapse of peace talks sponsored by the United Nations in Geneva.

The coalition of Sunni Muslim states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has said taking control of Hodeida would force the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement to the negotiating table by cutting off its main supply line.

The alliance intervened in Yemen's war, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, in 2015 to restore the internationally-recognised government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, after he was ousted from Sanaa by the Houthis.