SANA’A (Press TV) – Yemeni armed forces and fighters from allied Popular Committees have launched a fresh drone strike on a major airbase in Saudi Arabia’s southern region of Asir in retaliation for the devastating military campaign and blockade.
Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced in a post published on his Twitter page that a domestically-manufactured Qasef-2K (Striker-2K) combat drone hit designated targets inside King Khalid airbase near the Saudi city of Khamis Mushait early Sunday.
The attack, he said, was in response to Riyadh’s ongoing military aggression and brutal siege against Yemen.
The development came only a day after Yemeni armed forces and their allies struck the same airbase, using two Qasef-2K unmanned aerial vehicles.
On Saturday, the media bureau of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah movement released video footage of a recent large-scale ground operation by Yemeni armed forces in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Jizan, where the troops made rapid advances and took control of dozens of Saudi military positions.
A Yemeni military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the multi-pronged offensive was carried out on the road linking al-Khobe to Wadi Jara. Saudi army positions in al-Fakhida Heights and al-Bayda Hills were targeted as well.
Yemeni forces managed to completely take control of several areas within the Saudi territory, and inflicted heavy losses on enemy forces, he added.
The official went on to say that a number of Saudi officers and soldiers were killed and wounded in a series of ambushes that targeted their armored vehicles.
He noted that dozens of Saudi troops and their mercenaries, including Sudanese militiamen, were also captured, while scores of them fled.
The Yemeni military official also said large quantities of various weapons and military equipment, which Saudi forces had abandoned in their positions, were seized by Yemeni troops.
“During the operation, 29 armored vehicles belonging to the Saudi army were destroyed and set on fire as well,” he said.
Saudi fighter jets launched six airstrikes against the Medghal district and another on the Majzar district in Yemen’s strategic central province of Ma’rib, but there were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage.
Saudi warplanes also pounded the Khabb wa ash Sha’af district in the northern Yemeni province of al-Jawf, with no reports of casualties and damage quickly available.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the U.S. and regional allies, launched a devastating 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 movement.
The Saudi-led military aggression has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. The Saudi war has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases across the country.