Saudi Military Sites, Aramco Refineries Hit in Retaliation

Date: 12 April 2021 - 21:34

News ID: ۸۹۱۱۷

SANAA (Dispatches) – The Yemeni military said Monday it launched retaliatory drone operations against Saudi Arabian energy giant Aramco’s facilities, amid a surge in fighting with Riyadh-backed mercenaries in the war-torn country.
Military spokesman General Yahya Saree said in a statement carried by Al Masirah television that the operations took place overnight, in retaliation for the six-year military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
He said the Yemeni army targeted Aramco refineries in the western Saudi city of Jeddah and in Jubail in the east, with 10 drones launched at dawn.
He also said Yemen hit "sensitive military areas” in the southern cities of Khamis Mushait and Jizan, with five drones and two ballistic missiles.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia claimed it had intercepted and destroyed Yemeni drones targeting Khamis Mushait and Jizan.
Yemen has struck Aramco facilities in the past, underscoring the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia’s expensive and strategically vital oil infrastructure.
Last November, the Yemeni army hit an Aramco plant in Jeddah with a Quds-2 missile, tearing a hole in an oil tank and triggering an explosion and fire, the company said.

Jeddah Airport Shut Down: Report

Earlier Monday, an international airport in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah was temporarily closed due to a military activity in the vicinity of the city, an aviation news website said, with Yemen warning that the kingdom uses its airports for military purposes.
Simple Flying reported that flights due to arrive in King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah were being diverted to other airports around Saudi Arabia.
Yemeni troops on Sunday carried

out drone attacks against military aircraft hangars at Jizan airport, also known as King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz airport, in the kingdom’s southern Jizan region and King Khalid air base in Asir in retaliation for the Saudi aggression.
Jeddah is about 800 kilometers from the Yemeni border.
Last February, a member of Yemen’s Ansaruallh movement said Saudi Arabia uses its airports across the kingdom to launch deadly aerial attacks on Yemen, making them "legitimate targets” of the war-torn country’s retaliation strikes.
"We advise airlines not to use Saudi airports because they are used for military purposes in the aggression and blockade on Yemen,” Supreme Political Council member Muhammad al-Bukhaiti said in a tweet on February 10.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the U.S. and its other regional allies, launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Yemen’s former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.
The offensive and a simultaneous siege that the invaders have been imposing on the country have led to the death of tens of thousands of Yemenis.
Al Masirah reported on Sunday that Saudi border guards had shot dead a civilian off Alrko area in the border district of Monabeh in Yemen’s Sa’ada Province.
Yemen’s forces have pledged to sustain their retaliatory measures as long as the invaders and their supporters continue the war and their siege.

Victories in Ma’rib

The latest operation came a day after at least 70 fighters were killed in fierce fighting for Yemen’s strategic northern city of Marib.
The Yemeni army and their allied popular forces have been trying to liberate Marib, the capital of an oil-rich region and the Saudi-backed forces’ last significant pocket of territory in the north since February.
Agence France-Presse reported that the battle between Yemeni troops, and militants loyal to Yemen’s former president was raging on three fronts in Ma’rib.
Pro-Hadi military sources told AFP that Yemeni forces had intensified their offensive to retake Ma’rib, adding the battle had left at least 123 killed on both sides in the past 48 hours.
One of the sources said the Yemeni forces "are launching simultaneous attacks” in the areas of Kassara and al-Mashjah, northwest of the city, and Jabal Murad in the south.
"They have made progress on the Kassara and al-Mashjah fronts, but they have been thwarted on the Jabal Murad front,” he said.
The advances came while the Saudi warplanes launched airstrikes that failed to halt the Yemeni operations.
Another source claimed that the air raids had "destroyed 12 military vehicles, including four tanks and a cannon” belonging to fighters from Yemen’s popular committees.