Saudi Arabia Now An Easy Target: Yemen’s Ansarullah
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Saudi Arabia has now become an easy target for Yemeni strikes, a Houthi Ansarullah movement official said, adding that a recent large-scale operation that inflicted heavy losses on the Saudi forces in Najran changed the equation of power in favor of Yemen.
In an interview with Tasnim on Sunday, Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political bureau of Ansarullah, highlighted the results of the massive military operation, codenamed God's Victory, which destroyed several Saudi-led brigades and marked the largest operation by Ansarullah over the past five years.
“The operation altered the equation of power in this war in favor of Yemen,” Bukhaiti said, adding that the successful operation was a result of the advances in Yemen’s missile, aerial and air defense capabilities that were reflected in the battlefield.
“Saudi Arabia has now turned into an easy target for the Yemeni army,” he stated.
The Houthi official said the Yemeni forces fully encircled and destroyed three Saudi military brigades in the operation and seized all of their military equipment.
Bukhaiti said the three doomed brigades were among the major military units that were under direct command of Saudi Arabia, noting that the brigades were mostly made up of Takfiri and extremist fighters.
Describing the Yemeni operation as the second heavy blow to Saudi Arabia after the September 14 attack on the Aramco oil installations, Bukhaiti warned that a third major operation could be carried out against the kingdom.
He said if the Saudi authorities turn down an offer for truce, proposed by President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat, Yemeni missile and aerial strikes on targets deep inside the Saudi territories will continue and even increase.
“Moreover, such attacks will target more vital and critical facilities of Saudis,” Bukhaiti warned.
In remarks on Saturday, Spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree described the major and efficient “God's Victory” operation as the biggest-ever since Saudi Arabia and some of its allies embarked an atrocious military campaign on Yemen more than four years ago, saying that the offensive lasted several months and inflicted dramatic losses upon the enemy, both in terms of military hardware and personnel.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 91,000 lives over the past four and a half years.
The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.