Yemenis Target Saudi Airport in Retaliatory Drone Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Yemeni army troops and allied fighters from Popular Committees have targeted Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport in a retaliatory drone strike against Riyadh’s ongoing war and siege on Yemen, a spokesman said.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, wrote in a Saturday tweet that the attack was carried out by the Yemeni Army’s UAV unit on Saturday afternoon.
Saree said the attack was in response to the Saudi-led coalition’s raids and military escalation as well as its continued siege against Yemeni people.
He added that a “Samad 3” drone was used in the operation.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the protracted war and siege against Yemen in March 2015, hoping to re-install former Riyadh-friendly Yemeni president Abd Rabbouh Mansur Hadi and crush the popular Ansarullah movement in a few weeks.
The war, however, is nearing its sixth anniversary, while Saudi Arabia has failed to reach any of its goals, and instead, turned Yemen into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead and many others facing famine and starvation.
A new round of military confrontations erupted between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in recent days. The Sana’a government, run by the Ansarullah movement, says the establishment of peace in Yemen depends on a Saudi cessation of the war and lifting of the siege.
“We have already stressed repeatedly that our military operations are purely defensive and continue until the aggressor stops his aggression and the siege is lifted,” Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the movement’s spokesman, said.
He made the remarks via Twitter on Saturday, an hour after Saree reported the drone attack on Abha International Airport.
Abdul-Salam said without practical steps on the ground to reach peace, any statement is meaningless.
“So stop the aggression and blockade of our people, and peace will be achieved for all,” he added.
The remarks came a day after the US announced it will delist the Ansarullah movement as a terrorist organization on February 16, less than a month after former US president blacklisted the movement despite worldwide outcry.
“This decision is a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Friday statement.
However, Blinken added that the US would “closely monitor” the activities of the movement and its leaders.