Saudi-led coalition launches airstrikes in Yemen’s Hodeidah

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition said it carried out airstrikes on Houthi military targets in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Friday, linking the operation “to attacks on Saudi vessels,” according to Reuters.

Houthi-affiliated broadcaster Al-Masirah reported that the strikes instead hit facilities belonging to a telecommunications corporation, while Al Jazeera, citing Houthi security sources, said earlier that strikes had taken place.

Yemen’s state news agency Saba, citing a source, reported that the attacks targeted the port of Hodeidah as well as Kamaran Island off the country’s Red Sea coast.

A source in Yemen’s Defence Ministry said the country’s air defence systems forced several Saudi military formations to withdraw from its airspace.

Yemen’s Foreign Ministry condemned the operation, warning that the coalition had made a “serious mistake that will be costly.”

In a subsequent statement cited by Al Jazeera, the coalition said the strikes had not targeted Hodeidah port and that all seaports in the province remained open, highlighting discrepancies between accounts of the operation.

By Tamilla Hasanova