ADEN: Fears of a humanitarian crisis in Yemen’s main port city Hodeidah grew as fighting spilled into residential districts on Wednesday after Arab coalition forces seized the airport from the Iran-aligned Houthis.

Residents said coalition aircraft were bombing Houthi positions on roads leading to the airport as the group dug in against an onslaught by the Arab alliance to take the city, the Houthis’ main port and the lifeline for millions of Yemenis.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the war in 2015 to roll back Houthi control of Yemen’s main population centres and reinstate its internationally recognised government. Coalition forces retook much of the south before the war, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, bogged down.

In a bid to break the stalemate, the coalition attacked heavily defended Hodeidah a week ago, pledging a swift operation to minimise civilian casualties and avoid disrupting vital aid to millions of Yemenis via the Red Sea port.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki told Al Arabiya television that the alliance captured the airport on Wednesday and was now destroying nearby Houthi fortifications. He accused the group of placing tanks inside residential areas.

The escalation in fighting has wounded civilians, forced many to flee their homes and hampered humanitarian agencies, which are concerned about a potential cholera outbreak in the densely inhabited city as battles cut off water supplies.

A Hodeidah resident told Reuters that a considerable number of residents were now leaving the city. Kristine Beckerle, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Hodeidah residents were worried about the dangers of land mines placed on roads they might take to escape the war zone.

“I wish we were seeing more from the international community,” she told Reuters. “Too many states are acting like there’s nothing they can do.”

Though the coalition pledged to try to avoid battles in crowded urban neighbourhoods, the Houthis were well dug into Hodeidah to protect the key supply line to the core northern territory they control, including the capital, Sanaa.

In a televised address, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said fighting would not cease even if the coalition regained the whole country.

The United Nations fears heavy fighting will worsen what is already the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis, with 22 million Yemenis dependent on aid and an estimated 8.4 million believed to be on the verge of starvation.

Saudi Arabia accuses the Houthis of using Hodeidah’s port to smuggle in Iranian-made weapons, including missiles that have been fired at Saudi cities. The Houthis and Tehran deny this.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018