SANAA (Dispatches) – Yemeni naval forces, backed by fighters from Popular Committees, have reportedly targeted and destroyed a military vessel in a missile attack off the coast of the country’s southwestern province of Ta'izz.
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the frigate was targeted with a guided missile in waters near the port city of Mukha, situated 346 kilometers south of the capital Sana'a, on Saturday.
On July 29, 12 Emirati troopers lost their lives and another 23 sustained injuries when their frigate was targeted with a guided missile off the coast of Mukha.
An unnamed military source told Yemen’s official SABA news agency that the vessel was heavily loaded with various munitions, and the missile attack caused a series of explosions that lasted until 8:30 p.m. local time (1730 GMT), before water-dropping planes could extinguish the flames.

UAE Military Chopper Crashes

In another development, a Black Hawk helicopter, belonging to the United Arab Emirates, has crashed in southern Yemen, killing four of its crew.
According to Yemen's official Saba news agency, the chopper crashed in the Amqeel area of Ar Rawdah district in the south-central Yemeni province of Shabwah on Friday afternoon.
The general command of the UAE’s armed forces confirmed that four of its soldiers were killed after their helicopter was hit by a technical fault.
However, AFP quoted Colonel Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition engaged in a war in Yemen, as saying the pilot made an emergency landing in the area due to "a technical defect while returning from an operation in Yemen.”
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has been heavily bombarding Yemen as part of a brutal campaign against its impoverished southern neighbor in an attempt to reinstall Yemen’s former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, which is in control of large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sana'a.
Meanwhile, the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has arrived in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to discuss the Yemeni conflict with Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Cheikh Ahmed arrived in Tehran on Saturday and would meet Minister Zarif and other officials, including Zarif’s deputy for Arab and African affairs, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, later in the day, according to ISNA.
This is Cheikh Ahmed’s second visit to Iran.