{"id":14501,"date":"2018-09-10T01:25:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T01:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14501"},"modified":"2018-09-10T01:25:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T01:25:43","slug":"dozens-killed-in-hodeidah-attacks-after-peace-talks-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14501","title":{"rendered":"‘Dozens killed’ in Hodeidah attacks after peace talks collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in clashes and air raids around the Yemeni city of Hodeidah following the collapse of\u00a0UN-sponsored\u00a0<\/span>peace talks<\/a>\u00a0between the internationally recognised government and Houthi rebels.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Saudi-UAE coalition backing government forces launched an offensive in June to retake the strategic port city – the main gateway for imports of relief supplies and commercial goods – from rebel fighters who have held it since 2014.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Multiple sources have reported that dozens, if not scores, of people have been killed in the past 24 hours after Saudi-UAE-led coalition attacks,” said Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti.<\/p>\n

“In fact, one source said that there had been 60 attacks,” he added, noting that the situation is “definitely escalating in a fairly big way”.<\/p>\n

He added that reports suggest the likelihood of civilian deaths is high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have heard reports from the Saudi side that civilians trying to escape Hodeidah ran into minefields laid by the Houthis. The Houthis say they [the civilians] were bombed by a series of strikes,” said Simmons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Separately, hospital sources in Hodeidah province told AFP news agency that 84 people – 73 rebel fighters and 11 government soldiers – had been killed since the attempted peace talks in Switzerland were abandoned on Saturday after Houthi representatives failed to show up.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the casualty figures.<\/p>\n

The rebels refused to leave\u00a0Yemen\u00a0for Geneva, saying the UN had not met their demands – including a plane to transport their wounded to nearby Oman and a guarantee their delegation would be allowed to return to the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa.<\/p>\n

Humanitarian crisis<\/h2>\n

Hodeidah’s seaport was responsible for delivering 70 percent of Yemen’s imports – mostly humanitarian aid, food and fuel – before 2015.<\/p>\n

Yet, Saudi Arabia says that the Houthis, who reportedly generate $30m to $40m a month in revenue from the port, are using it to smuggle in weapons from Iran.<\/p>\n

In July, the Saudi-UAE coalition announced a temporary ceasefire to give a chance to UN-brokered peace talks.<\/p>\n

The war in Yemen, the region’s poorest country, started in 2014 after Houthi rebels seized control of Sanaa and began pushing south towards Aden, the country’s third-biggest city.<\/p>\n

Concerned by the rise of the Houthi rebels, the coalition launched a military offensive in 2015 in the form of a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the UN, at least 10,000 people have been killed in the war – a death toll that has not been updated in years and is certain to be far higher.<\/p>\n

The UN says Yemen, which stands at the brink of famine, is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

The coalition launched a major offensive to retake Hodeidah in June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in clashes and air raids around the Yemeni city of Hodeidah following the collapse of\u00a0UN-sponsored\u00a0peace talks\u00a0between the internationally recognised government and Houthi rebels. A Saudi-UAE coalition backing government forces launched an offensive in June to retake the strategic port city – the main gateway for imports of relief…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}