DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Arab military coalition invaded Yemen’s main Red Sea port Wednesday, threatening to worsen the world’s most severe humanitarian disaster by disrupting the pipeline that millions of Yemenis rely on for food and other supplies.
The air and ground attack by forces loyal to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates was aimed at tipping the balance in Yemen’s long civil war and driving Iranian-backed rebels out of the port of Hodeida. But sustained fighting there could produce one of the bloodiest urban battles of the war, deepening what is already a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
Eight million of Yemen’s estimated 28 million people are at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations and aid agencies. About a quarter of a million people in Hodeida, a city of 600,000, are in danger of injury or death in an urban assault, they said. But a battle there would have consequences far beyond the city, whose port is the main entry point for aid to the rest of the country.
“This attack risks more people dying, but it also risks cutting the lifeline of millions of Yemenis,’’ said Jolien Veldwijk, the acting country director in Yemen for the aid agency Care International. “Food imports already reached the lowest levels since the conflict started and the price of basic commodities has risen by a third. We are gravely concerned that parts of the population could experience famine.’’
The Saudis and Emiratis intervened in the war three years ago with hopes of a quick victory over the Houthi rebels, an armed movement with ties to Iran. Instead, the two nations have been stuck in a quagmire.
With the assault on Hodeida, they were hoping for a symbolic victory over the group that would give the neighboring countries an upper hand in peace negotiations.
The Houthis still control the capital, Sanaa, as well as territories in northern Yemen.
“The liberation of the city and port will create a new reality and bring the Houthis to the negotiations,’’ Anwar Gargash, the Emirates’ state minister for foreign affairs, said on Twitter.
The United States has backed the Saudi-led coalition in this war but US military officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have warned their Arab allies that the assault could end in failure both militarily and politically, and result in further civilian suffering.
An increasing number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress are criticizing the US role, accusing the Pentagon of being complicit in the bombing campaign.
Nine Senate Republicans and Democrats wrote to Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday, expressing “grave alarm’’ that the offensive would worsen the humanitarian crisis in the country.
“The US must now withdraw all its military support of the Saudi and UAE military coalition,’’ Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat if California, a former Air Force lawyer, said in a separate e-mail Wednesday. “The US already has blood on its hands in the Yemen crisis, we should not make them even bloodier.’’
Yemeni troops, trained and financed by the United Arab Emirates, led the ground offensive Wednesday, which began on the southern edge of the city. There were also airstrikes on two pro-Houthi neighborhoods, according to residents.
The Emiratis have signaled they plan to launch a separate naval offensive to take the port.
It was not immediately clear what role, if any, US military advisers would play. The New York Times reported last month that US Army commandos were helping to destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels were using to attack Saudi cities.
Since 2015, the United States has provided the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen with refueling, intelligence assessments, and advice. The Pentagon says its military aid is noncombat assistance. But defense contractor Raytheon is courting lawmakers and the State Department to allow it to sell 60,000 guided munitions to the Saudis and Emiratis.
