SANAA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths left Yemen's capital Sanaa on Tuesday morning, failing to secure a deal to stop the fighting in Hodeidah, a Houthi official told Xinhua.
Griffiths arrived in Sanaa on Saturday in a renewed effort to stop the fighting in the western port city of Hodeidah. It was his second official visit to the rebel-held capital in two weeks.
"Griffiths met (Houthi) president of the ruling supreme political council Mahdi al-Mashat," Osama Sari, a spokesman at al-Mashat's office, told Xinhua.
Sari added that Griffiths discussed with al-Mashat the consequences of the ongoing fighting in Hodeidah on the peaceful political process, as well as the possibility of resuming the peace talks.
Griffiths on Monday briefed the United Nations Security Council via a video conference from Sanaa, saying he would launch a first round of Yemeni peace talks next month.
Earlier in the day, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that the Yemeni government troops, supported by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, seized control of the Hodeidah airport.
Sari admitted the Houthi loss of the airport during Tuesday morning's offensive by the coalition forces, but adding that their forces were still setting a siege around the airport.
Adel Bishr, a humanitarian activist of the independent al-Saleh Charity Foundation in Hodeidah, told Xinhua by phone that the coalition used Apache helicopters and warplanes to support the ground advance by the Yemeni forces, while Houthi fighters used tanks to resist the coalition advance.
Baseem al-Jenani, a pro-Yemeni government media spokesman in Hodeidah said on his Twitter account that the airstrikes hit at least three military vehicles of Houthi fighters around the airport.
"One of the airstrikes hit a bus carrying escaping civilians in a regular road near the airport, badly injured a man, his wife and their 6-year-old daughter," Al-Jenani said.
International humanitarian agencies have warned that an assault on Hodeidah would be a major disaster to the densely populated port city and would block aid supplies to the residents there.
Hodeidah is the lifeline route for importing and transporting humanitarian aid to northern Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015. The war has so far killed over 10,000 people, mostly civilians, and forced 3 million others out of their homes.
