SANA’A (Dispatches) – The Yemeni army says it has liberated two more districts in the strategic Ma’rib province from Saudi-backed militants.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the armed forces’ spokesman, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the province’s al-Jubah and Jabal Murad Districts were liberated by the army and allied popular forces during the second phase of ‘Operation Spring of Victory.’
Ma’rib has turned into a focus of the Yemeni army’s liberation operations since last year.
The province’s recapture, towards which many advancements have been made so far, is expected to pave the way for further military victories for Yemen’s armed forces.
Besides Ma’rib, Operation Spring of Victory has been focusing on the recapture of Bayda and Shabwah Provinces, which neighbor Ma’rib to the south.
So far during the operation’s second phase, Saree added, as much as 1,100 square kilometers (424 square miles) has returned back under the Yemeni National Salvation Government’s control. More than 200 Saudi-led mercenaries have, meanwhile, been killed and 500 others wounded, the official said.
During the Yemeni forces’ advances, the Saudi-led coalition conducted as many as 159 airstrikes against them, prompting Yemen’s missile defense and drone units to carry out 188 counterattacks, 29 of which targeted the depths of the Saudi soil, Saree said.
“Your war is criminal and adversarial and would bring along abjection, ignominy, and defeat for you,” he told the kingdom and its allies, urging the mercenaries to put down their arms before it is too late.
Saudi Arabia has been backed by the U.S. and regional allies in the war on Yemen since March 2015. The military campaign’s objective was to bring former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush Ansarullah, which had overthrown the previous Yemeni government in a revolution.
The Saudi-led war on its southern neighbor 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.
In the meantime, Yemeni armed forces and the Popular Committees have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.