Soldiers from an Arab alliance seized the international airport in the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida on Saturday, officials loyal to Yemen's exiled government said.

Aid workers and rights advocates said areas close to the airport remained the scene of intense fighting, which prevented thousands of people from leaving the Red Sea city, which has a population of 600,000.

Other government officials and witnesses later said coalition forces had not yet fully taken control of the airport. They said fighting was heavy just outside the airport gates.

The pro-alliance Yemeni military, meanwhile, said that soldiers were working to clear mines and the last remaining rebels from land close to the airport, which is on the south side of the city.

Troops from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are leading ground forces in the latest assault to recapture the country's main gateway for food shipments, which began on Wednesday.

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Watch video 02:22 Share Saudi-led troops attack Hodeida Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2zbTK Saudi-led troops look to retake Yemeni port of Hodeida

Biggest battle yet

UAE troops are being bolstered by militiamen and soldiers backing Yemen's exiled government, while Saudi Arabia is providing air support for what is being described as the biggest battle in the country's three-year civil war.

Yemen's Shiite rebels, the Houthis, who also hold the country's capital of Sanaa, did not immediately acknowledge losing the airport.

So far, fighting has yet to enter Hodeida's downtown or its crucial port.

Humanitarian crisis

The Arab coalition has ignored advice from international aid groups, who say Yemen is already on the brink of famine and any shutdown of Hodeida's port could risk tipping millions of civilians into starvation.

Some 70 percent of Yemen's food enters via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies, which around two-thirds of the country's 27 million population depends on.

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Saudi Arabia, which leads the Arab coalition to restore the internationally recognized Yemeni government, defended its decision to launch the assault.

It said the port was continuing to provide millions of dollars in duties for the Houthis, who they claim were also importing weapons through the facility.

The Saudi-led alliance says it can swiftly capture the port, the only one the Houthis control, without major disruption to aid supplies.

Later on Saturday, the United Nations envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, arrived in the rebel-held capital Sanaa for talks on the conflict in Hodeida, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.

He was expected to call for Houthi leaders to cede control of the port to a UN-supervised committee, and to avoid further fighting between rebels and the Arab coalition.

More than 10,000 people have been killed during Yemen's civil war. The Saudi-led alliance intervened in 2015 to thwart what many countries in the Middle East see as efforts by their archfoe, Iran, to dominate the region.

Western nations say Tehran has supplied the Houthis with weapons, from assault rifles to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.

mm/jlw (AP, Reuters)

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