Taiz – Houthi and Saleh militias have started transferring Hodeidah city detainees into unknown locations, according to informed sources in the western Yemeni city.

They expressed fear that Houthis will turn these areas into targets for coalition forces, which usually strikes military bases and arms warehouses.

The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthi militias felt threatened as national army and Arab coalition forces advanced on the coastal city and have started preparing to liberate its port from these militias, who abruptly transferred their detainees to unknown places without informing their relatives.

Houthi militias told the relatives, who used to be allowed to visit their loved ones in the political security prison, that the detainees are no longer in the facility, refusing to divulge their new location, according to the sources.

The parents of the detainees in Hodeidah, one of the largest port cities in Yemen, fear that Houthi militias will use the detainees as military targets for the coalition’s airplanes, especially following the debate over the liberation of the city by the Yemeni army and coalition forces.

Previously a civil port, Houthi militias have used Hodeidah as a military base and a station for human trafficking.

The parents held Houthi militias responsible for the life of the detainees in case they were harmed in anyway, urging local and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to exert immediate efforts to reveal the fate of their loved ones.

On the other hand, Popular Resistance forces in Tihama continued their military operations against positions, targets and military patrols affiliated with Houthi and Saleh militias in various areas in the province. It is also targeted members of the militia in Hodeidah city.