Attacks near ports .. Escalation between the coalition and the Houthis in western Yemen

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates-led military alliance launched air strikes on Monday near the Red Sea port of Ras Issa, residents said, as part of an escalation between the alliance and the Houthis despite a UN-brokered ceasefire nearly a year ago.

Residents reported three air strikes near the oil port, one of three ports in western Yemen from which the Houthi group unilaterally withdrew in May under a December 2018 peace deal that has yet to be fully implemented.

"These are legitimate military targets that reflect the imminent threat of Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist militias," coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki told Reuters when asked about the air strikes.

The operation came after the Houthis seized a Saudi-flagged ship last week and two South Korean ships last week.

The Houthi group said the ships had entered Yemeni territorial waters because of bad weather. The coalition accused the group of "hijacking" ships and said it posed a threat to world trade.

Earlier, the Houthi-run Al-Massira television reported that the coalition had launched air strikes on Ras Issa and on an island in the Red Sea early on Monday.

A medical source said one person was killed in the attacks near Ras Issa.

The United Nations special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said last Friday that the number of coalition airstrikes had fallen by about 80 percent in the last two weeks after Saudi Arabia and the Houthis began informal talks in September on a wider truce in Yemen.

The United Nations is trying to resume political negotiations to end a nearly five-year war that has killed tens of thousands and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.

Houthi attacks
The Houthi group announced on Monday, killing and wounding more than 350 soldiers of the Yemeni government forces, along with Saudi, Emirati and Sudanese soldiers, in attacks launched on the western city of al-Mukha since November 6.

Houthi forces spokesman Brigadier-General Yahya Serai told a news conference that the military operation launched by the group's forces on behalf of "and if you go back" targeted the camps of government and coalition forces, noting that the operation was in response to the "escalation" of the coalition in areas of western Yemen.

Brigadier General Serie said that the attack was carried out with nine ballistic missiles and more than 20 drones, and led to the destruction of five weapons stores and a number of vehicles and armored vehicles and the disruption of a number of radars, in addition to Patriot batteries.

He vowed more attacks and said, "We affirm that we will not stand idly by and we will respond strongly to the aggressions, violations and violations of the enemy in Hodeidah and the West Coast."