Yemeni Trafficker: Coalition and Yemeni Port

yemeni trafficker: The coalition has been heavily bombarding the nearby coast around the Yemeni port of Hodeida, where it accuses the rebels, known as Houthis, of smuggling weapons in small boats, according to Hamilton Spectator. There was no immediate coalition comment. The attack, which Yemen's Shiite rebels blamed on a Saudi-led coalition, highlighted the perils of a heavily used migration route running from the Horn of Africa to the oil-rich Gulf, right through Yemen's civil war. A Yemeni trafficker who survived the attack said the boat was filled with Somali refugees, including women and children, who were trying to reach Sudan from Yemen, which has been racked by conflict for more than two years. He described a scene of panic in which the terrified refugees waved flashlights, apparently to show they were not combatants. Al-Hassan Ghaleb Mohammed told The Associated Press the boat left from Ras Arra, along the southern coastline in Yemen's Hodeida province, and was 50 kilometres off the coast, near the Bab al-Mandab strait, when the military vessel open fire, followed by the helicopter gunship. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.