SANA’A (Dispatches) – Yemeni army forces and fighters from allied Popular Committees have gained control over a strategic area in the country’s central province of Ma’rib as they continue to achieve military progress in their battles against Saudi-led coalition forces and their mercenaries.
Local sources, requesting not to be named, told Yemen Press Agency that Yemeni troops and their allies have seized Wadi Nakhla area, which lies northwest of the provincial capital city of Ma’rib, following fierce clashes with troops affiliated with the Saudi-led coalition and Al-Qaeda elements.
The sources added that Yemeni army forces and Popular Committees fighters have strengthened their positions in and around the area to repel any possible attack by Saudi-led forces and terrorists.
Yemeni forces have succeeded in liberating an area of 1,600 square kilometers in their latest advances against the coalition’s mercenaries in the country’s oil-rich province of Ma’rib, according to the country’s armed forces.
Saree described the liberation of Madghal and Majzar districts as one of the most important achievements of the ongoing Operation Intense Strength, noting that Yemeni armed forces had also wrested control over Mas camp, which was considered one of the largest camps used by the enemy during the past few years.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the U.S. and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases.
Yemeni armed forces and allied Popular Committees, however, have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders, leaving Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.
Yemen’s defense minister has warned the country’s invaders that they will face more defeats if they kept up their aggression.
“Retaliation against the invading countries will continue until the country’s complete liberation,” Mohammad Nasser al-Atefi said on Saturday.
He was visiting a fighting front in the northwestern al-Jawf Province, during which he sat down with the forces of the Yemeni army and Popular Committees, who have been jointly leading Yemen’s defensive operations against the invasion.
Al-Atefi said the war was an “unjust” invasion by all political, moral, and humanitarian standards.