World

Fighting resumes around key Yemeni port city Hodeida

14 of June 2018

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, file photo, a Yemeni soldier allied to the country's internationally recognized government unslings his machine gun on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen. Yemen's yearslong war between Shiite rebels and a Saudi-led coalition backing its exiled government has escalated with an assault on the insurgent-held port city of Hodeida. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell, File),FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, file photo, a Yemeni soldier allied to the country's internationally recognized government unslings his machine gun on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen. Yemen's yearslong war between Shiite rebels and a Saudi-led coalition backing its exiled government has escalated with an assault on the insurgent-held port city of Hodeida. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Fighting around the Yemen port city of Hodeida has resumed as a Saudi-led coalition tries to retake it from Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

Witnesses described heavy fighting to the city’s south on Thursday morning, near its airport.

The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government began the assault on the port city of Hodeida (hoh-DY’-duh) on Wednesday.

Hodeida is the main entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine. That has raised warnings from aid agencies that Yemen’s humanitarian disaster could deepen.