Army soldiers, allied forces target Saudi warship in western Yemen

Yemeni army forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have targeted a Saudi military vessel in a missile attack off the coast of the country’s western province of Hudaydah.

An unnamed Yemeni military source told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network on Monday that Yemeni forces fired a guided missile at al-Madinah warship in waters near the port city of Hudaydah, located 150 kilometers southwest of the capital Sana'a.

The source added that the vessel had 176 soldiers and officers in addition to a combat helicopter onboard at the time.

The warship had reportedly mounted missile attacks against Yemen’s western coasts, cities and fishermen.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen has confirmed the incident but claimed, apparently in an attempted downplaying of the successful attack, that it suffered a casualty toll of merely five. Yet, footage of the raid provided by Yemeni forces points to the enormity of the explosion and subsequent fire on the deck of the Saudi vessel.

On January 21, the Yemeni Coast Guard warned enemies’ battleships against using the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, to bomb civilian targets, emphasizing that such a practice poses grave threats to international maritime navigation in the area.

In October 2016, Yemeni forces and Popular Committees fighters destroyed an Emirati HSV-2 Swift hybrid catamaran off the shores of the Red Sea port city of Mukha, situated 346 kilometers south of the capital.

Yemeni army forces had destroyed a Saudi warship in a missile attack in the southwestern coast of Yemen, in the Bab el-Mandeb in October 2015.  

The development came only days after Yemeni forces managed to destroy another Saudi vessel in the area, with reports saying that the sunken ship had repeatedly fired rockets on residential areas in Ta'izz Province.

Yemeni snipers shoot dead five Saudi troopers 

Meanwhile, Yemeni army soldiers and allied forces fatally shot five Saudi troops in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Jizan.

They killed two Saudi troops in the al-Moanaq base of the region, located 969 kilometers south of the capital, Riyadh, on Monday evening.

Army troops and Popular Committees fighters had earlier launched attacks on al-Khashal and al-Karas outposts in the same Saudi region, killing three Saudi soldiers there.

Separately, tens of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to the resigned Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, were killed and wounded in al-Wazi'iyah district as Yemeni forces thwarted their offensive. Several armored vehicles belonging to the militiamen were also destroyed during the heavy fighting.

According to the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, the Yemeni conflict has claimed the lives of 10,000 people and left 40,000 others wounded.

McGoldrick told reporters in Sana’a on January 16 that the figure is based on lists of victims gathered by health facilities and the actual number might be higher.

The Saudi war on Yemen, which local sources say has killed at least 11,400 people, was launched in an attempt to bring back the former government to power.

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