US Destroyed Yemen’s Air Defenses before Saudi War, Video Shows
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A new video released by Ansarullah revolutionary movement shows the US destroyed Yemen’s air defenses well before 2015, when Saudi Arabia initiated its deadly war against the impoverished country.
The footage shows US officials working with military members from the former government of Ali Abdullah Saleh to destroy stockpiles of handheld anti-aircraft systems, Al-Ahed news reported recently.
The video has been provided by a high-ranking Ansarullah official to a number of Arab media outlets.
It supports earlier remarks by a Yemeni security source who revealed that the United States had destroyed the country’s air defense missiles during the reign of the slain Yemeni president over allegations that the weapons would fall into al-Qaeda hands in case the then Yemeni administration was toppled.
The unnamed source told Yemen’s official Saba news agency on Thursday that an American delegation consisting of Program Manager in the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA) with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Dennis F. Hadrick, liaison officer Santo Polizzi, technical expert Niels Talbot, Deputy Director of Programs in the Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism at the Department of State, Laurie Freeman, and the military attaché at the US embassy in Sana’a held meetings with Yemeni Ministry of Defense officials at the time to pressure them to hand over the missiles in preparation for their complete destruction. Their demands were initially turned down though.
Meanwhile, despite Washington’s efforts and the subsequent attacks by the Saudi-led coalition to render Yemen’s air defense systems useless, the Ansarullah movement has managed to develop and manufacture new air defense missiles capable of destroying the coalition’s modern military aircraft.
The advances have become a real threat to the Saudi-led coalition and US operations in Yemen, claiming multiple advanced drones and military jets, especially in the last few months of the war.
Last month, Yemeni armed forces unveiled four domestically-built long-range, surface-to-air missile defense systems, which could act as game changers and alter the course of battle in the face of the deadly campaign led by Saudi Arabia against Yemen.
