Saudi-led forces in Yemen have opened a new front in the country’s civil war beginning an advance on its main port and route for vital food supplies.
Commanders from the United Arab Emirates leading the advance, and their allies from local militias, said that they managed to persuade forces loyal to the former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to defect. Mr Saleh was killed in a shoot-out with his former allies, the Houthi rebel group, last week.
The coalition forces are now advancing behind Emirati tanks towards the port of Hodeidah, on the coast southwest of the capital Sana’a.
Hodeidah is the main route into the country for food and aid, and its partial blockade by the coalition is said to be the main reason