Thousands of Saudi coalition troops arrive at Hodeida, day after US calls for truce

Thousands of Saudi-led coalition troops were arriving at Yemen's port city Hodeida on Thursday, just one day after Washington called for a ceasefire in the Arab world's poorest country.

Coalition vehicles were seen on Thursday approaching the area of clashes between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-led coalition forces just outside the city.

The coalition has been ramping up its siege on Hodeida, the entry point for 70 percent of Yemen's imports and international aid.

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to back the internationally-recognised and now government-in-exile of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Hadi's government was toppled after the Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen, accuse the coalition of killing thousands of Yemeni civilians in a relentless air campaign and of choking Hodeida.

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Thursday's news follows a separate report on Tuesday by Yemeni officials that said that more than 10,000 Saudi-led coalition troops were deployed to Hodeida.

The Saudi-led coalition has been waging an aerial bombing campaign in Yemen aimed at pushing the Houthis back, but the rebels still hold Hodeida and the capital Sanaa.

After UN-backed talks collapsed in September, the coalition announced it was relaunching an assault on the port city.

The fighting has since eased and Saudi-led forces have focused their raids on the city limits and other parts of the surrounding province.

But last week strikes in the province killed dozens of civilians, the UN said, with the Houthis blaming the strikes on Saudi Arabia.

The coalition has drawn heavy global criticism for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign in Yemen.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was embarking on a new push for peace in Yemen, where upwards of 50,000 have died since the war began.

Last week, the UN also warned that 14 million of Yemen's 28 million people now face a serious threat of famine, with more than 22 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

The UN has previously called Yemen the "world's worst humanitarian crisis".

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