SANAA (Dispatches) – Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree on Sunday announced the full liberation of the northern Jawf province from the occupation of Saudi-backed militants and mercenaries.
“Our forces carried out Operation Fajr Sahra (Desert Dawn), which led to the liberation of the Al-Yatmah and adjacent areas in Al-Jawf province,” Al-Masirah TV website quoted him as saying.
“During this operation, the enemy forces and their mercenaries were crushed. The area liberated during Operation Desert Dawn is more than 1,200 square kilometers. Al-Jawf province was completely liberated, except for some areas in the desert.”
Saree said the enemy forces suffered heavy casualties, and Yemeni army forces and popular committees confiscated large quantities of weapons from them.
“We will respond to any attack with attacks, and we will not hesitate to carry out special and unique operations in the future, and this is in line with the right to defend themselves by the Yemeni people,” he added.
The announcement came after Saudi Arabia launched a new round of overnight airstrikes on several residential neighborhoods across the capital Sanaa, as the regime intensifies its bombardment campaign against its southern neighbor.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al-Masirah that Saudi fighter jets targeted Asr district, which lies on the western suburb of Sanaa, for three times, damaging several residential buildings.
The sources added that the aerial attacks sent panic-stricken locals into the streets. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Lebanese Al-Mayadeen television news network also reported that powerful explosions rocked southern districts of the Yemeni capital, shattering windows and damaging structures, as Saudi air strikes targeted some sites there.
The airstrikes came after Saree announced that Yemeni army forces and their allies had struck critical and sensitive targets deep inside Saudi Arabia with three homegrown ballistic missiles.
Reports also said Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are leading a devastating military campaign and brutal siege against Yemen, are preparing to hand over the control of Yemen’s southeastern province of Shabwah to Al-Qaeda terrorists.
Military sources told Yemen News Portal’s website that the Saudi-led coalition is seeking to transfer several militant brigades, which include groups from Salafist and Al-Qaeda-linked groups, to Shabwah.
They said Riyadh had ordered Major General Ibrahim Haydan, Yemen’s interior minister in the administration of fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, to direct pro-Hadi forces in neighboring Abyan province to facilitate the passage of Salafisit militants and members of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terrorist group to the oil-producing region.
Meanwhile, Hadi has dismissed Shabwah provincial governor, Muhammad Saleh bin Adeow, clearing the way for the handover of the province to Al-Qaeda terrorists, the reports said.
With no explanation for the decision, Hadi fired bin Adeow and appointed Muhammad Abdullah al-Awlaki as the new governor, Yemeni media outlets reported.
They said the new Shabwah provincial governor was being staunchly supported by the UAE, and had lived in the Persian Gulf state’s capital city of Abu Dhabi for several years.
Informed sources said bin Adeow and his forces were fiercely opposed to the presence of Emirati armed forces in Shabwah, and had even besieged them in the industrial port town of Balhaf.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing Hadi’s government back to power and crushing 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 there.
The United Nations says more than 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.
Despite heavily-armed Saudi Arabia’s incessant bombardment of the impoverished country, the 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.
On Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition issued a statement, saying that the Yemeni forces have fired 430 ballistic missiles and 851 armed drones at Saudi Arabia since the war started in 2015.