Riyadh, May 29, 2018 (News Wires) -- Saudi-led coalition are closing in on Yemen's Houthi-held port city Hodeidah, a coalition spokesman said. "Hodeidah is 20 km (12.43 miles) away and operations are continuing," spokesman Colonel Turki Al Malki said at a press briefing in the Saudi capital Riyadh late on Monday, detailing gains made against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. Coalition-backed troops have now reached Al Durayhmi, a rural area some 18 km from Hodeidah port, residents and the spokesperson for one military unit. Al Malki said the recent US sanctions imposed on a host of Iranian individuals and organisations as well as the Houthi militias in Yemen are yet another evidence that Iran is a terror-sponsor state. Regarding the drone which attacked Abha last week, Al Malki said the Saudi Royal Air Forces have successfully intercepted and destroyed the non-pilot plane. Later, the coalition monitored the Saada-based assembling apparatus, strictly attacked the persons in charge of this terrorist act as well as those who tried to move the planes and hide them in a neighbouring building. He said the coalition forces is going to decisively deal with the so-called Qasef plane which is in fact the Iranian Ababil craft, used in terrorist actions against the Kingdom's people and expatriates residing in the Kingdom as well as the civil properties.
