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Over the past weeks, the Saudi-UAE-led coalition has deployed signficiant reinforcements in the area south of the Houthi-controlled city of al-Hudaydah in western Yemen. The reinforcements include at least 10,000 troops and a few hundreeds pieces of military equipment.
Using these fresh forces, the coalition kicked off a new offensive in an attempt to capture the strategic port city. The coalition forces advanced in three main directions: in the area west of the airport, the area east of the airport and the area east of the city itself.
Thus, the coalition is aiming to isolate the airport, which is an important stronghold of the Houthis, from the rest of the city. A wider goal is to isolate the city itself from the rest of the Houthi-controlled area.
So far, the Houthis have not been able to stop the advancing coalition forces. The Houthis lack military equipment and anti-tank weapons to counter the mechanized infantry of the coalition. However, they are now concentrating forces for a counter-attack. The fate of the battle for al-Hudaydah will depend on the ability of the Houthis to force the coalition forces to withdraw from the city countryside.
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The coalition is actively using its advantage in manpower and military equipment to propel the ongoing advance. The Saudi Air Force is also playing an important role in the advance. In fact, Saudi warplanes carry out multiple strikes on every fortified position of the Houthis.
It’s interesting to note that the coalition kicked off its advance on al-Hudaydah just few days after the US authorities had declared that they would support a ceasefire in Yemen. However, it seems that Saudi Arabia and its allies are not interested in the ceasefire.
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