Yemen separatist leader says Hodeida offensive will not stop

ABU DHABI — A campaign to drive the Houthi movement from Yemen's main port of Hodeida, which resumed this month after peace talks failed, will not be halted again until the city is captured, a Yemeni commander leading southern separatist forces said on Thursday.

Aidaroos Al Zubaidi is the leader of the separatists who aim to restore the independent state of Southern Yemen, which united with northern Yemen in 1990.

His Southern Resistance Movement has 20,000 men positioned in Hodeida, providing the bulk of a ground force led by the United Arab Emirates that is trying to capture Yemen's main port city from the Houthis who control the capital Sanaa.

UAE-led troops launched a major offensive in Hodeida in June this year but suspended it after several weeks to allow the possibility for UN-brokered peace talks. The campaign resumed this month after the Houthis failed to attend the talks.

On Wednesday, Zubaidi's Giants Brigade said it was reinforcing its lines in Hodeida, sending more men, armoured vehicles and heavy artillery. The escalation has raised international alarm because of the threat to civilians, both from fighting in the city and from potential disruption to supply lines that keep more than 8 million Yemenis from famine.

"The civilian lives are very precious and all the coalition's operations in the air and sea are taking into consideration the civilian casualties, but the military operation has begun and there will be no going back," Zubaidi told Reuters in an interview in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.

"In all the wars across the world, there is always humanitarian suffering. But we are looking beyond the liberation of Hodeida which will be in the interests of the city's population," said Zubaidi. "The battle of Hodeida is continuing and the war is not over."

Vicious circle

Zubaidi's separatists have occasionally fought alongside forces of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was driven out of the capital in 2014 and now heads a government based in the southern port of Yemen.

They later fell out, but both remain important components of an anti-Houthi alliance backed by Arab forces led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Hadi lives in exile in Riyadh and has a close relationship to Saudi Arabia, while Zubaidi's separatist Southern Transitional Council maintains its luxurious headquarters in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital, and is backed by the UAE.

The separatist force, built with UAE support, has more than 50,000 fighters. They helped drive the Houthis from Aden and Al Qaeda militants from the southern port of Mukalla in 2015, often acting in a shaky alliance with Hadi's troops.

Intervention by the Arab states has so far failed to break the Iran-aligned Houthis, who still control most of Yemen's populated areas and strategic cities. The anti-Houthi coalition says it has seized the road linking Hodeida to Sanaa to isolate the two cities. The Houthis deny that the road has been taken.