Saudi-Led Invaders Evacuating Casualties from Yemen’s West Coast: Source
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Saudi-led mercenaries that have launched attacks on Yemen’s western coasts in order to seize the port city of Hudaydah are evacuating their casualties by sea after suffering heavy losses, a Yemeni military source said.
According to the source, the invaders are transferring tens of dead bodies and hundreds of injured forces out of the western coasts of Yemen by the Red Sea.
The source also said that the Yemeni army troops and popular committee forces have surrounded the invaders and cut off their access routes, highlighting the growing discontent among the Saudi-led mercenaries.
In separate comments, a Houthi Ansarullah movement spokesman, Mohammad Abdulsalam, said the fighting between the Yemeni defending forces and the Saudi-led invaders has turned into a war of attrition.
In a message in Twitter, Abdulsalam said the attackers have been faced with an unexpected war of attrition, as even their warplanes, destroyers and armored vehicles have failed to achieve anything in the offensive on Yemen’s western coast.
The fighter jets and warships of the Saudi-led coalition have been pounding Hudaydah since Wednesday to seize the strategic port, which is controlled by the Houthi forces.
The port is the main route for essential goods into Yemen, where 22 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and 8.4 million face starvation, according to the United Nations, which says the figure could reach 10 million by year end.
Aid agencies have said the battle may exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.
The UN has warned that in a worst-case scenario, the battle could cost up to 250,000 lives and cut off aid supplies to millions of people.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.