SANA’A (Dispatches) – At least 18 people have been injured after Saudi border troops fired barrages of artillery rounds at residential neighborhoods in Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada, close to the border with the kingdom.
Al-Masirah television network, citing local sources speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that 10 civilians, including African refugees, sustained injuries as the Saudi military struck the Monabbih district.
Eight other people were injured in an artillery attack on the Shada’a district. There were two African asylum seekers among the casualties.
Yemen’s interior minister said his country is engaged in a security war with the United States, noting that “The American enemy is monitoring everything inside the country in order to exploit it and create widespread chaos.”
Major General Abdulkarim al-Houthi told al-Masirah TV that Washington has strong wishes to make the most of the current situation, which is “neither peace nor war,” and meddles in Yemen’s internal affairs.
Houthi noted that the Yemeni security apparatus will soon reveal a list of spy cells, which are in close contact with the U.S. and the Saudi-led coalition and are aggressively working to undermine the Sana’a-based government.
He underlined Yemeni security services’ heightened vigilance, adding that the Yemeni society is also thwarting the wicked conspiracies that aim to disrupt peace and tranquility in the country.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s overthrown government, which is supported by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, has reportedly signed a long-term contract with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aimed at investment of the Emirati company, Ajham, in the construction of a seaport in Ras Sherwin area of the country’s southeastern province of al-Mahrah under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) partnership.
A Reuters report said that the contract is worth $100 million and includes creation of a promontory on several levels, including a 1,000-meter-long breakwater, a 300-meter quay for docking ships, and a draft of 14 meters in its first phase.
An informed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the port will be dedicated to exporting limestone and other minerals, besides handling containers and supplying vessels.
Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and other Western states, launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015.
The objective was to crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen, and reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to achieve any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.