‘Make it stop’: Civilians in Yemen’s Hodeidah trapped as fighting rages for strategic port city

Civilians in the Yemeni city of Hodeidah are dodging airstrikes in an attempt to flee advancing Arab coalition forces, residents have told The Independent. 

Civilians in the Yemeni city of Hodeidah are dodging airstrikes in an attempt to flee advancing Arab coalition forces, residents have told The Independent. 

Fierce fighting has broken out over the strategic city’s airport, with Apache helicopters aiming at the rebel Houthi snipers perched on the roofs of homes, schools and mosques in the adjacent neighbourhood of Manzar.

Airstrikes have pounded southern neighbourhoods and are deafening even from afar, resident Ahmed Abdullah Nasser said. 

“People are trying to leave with rockets and mortars over their heads,” a local aid worker, who wished not to use her name, said on Monday.

At least 280 people are believed to have been killed in the six days since the Arab coalition, which fights on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government, launched Operation Golden Victory to reclaim the port city.