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Yemeni ballistic missile hits military base in Asir region

Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have hit a military base in Saudi Arabia’s Asir region with a domestically-manufactured high-precision ballistic missile in retaliation for the regime's campaign of military aggression against the impoverished nation, a report says.

Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed military official from the missile unit of the Yemeni army, reported that the military base, located in al-Alab border crossing, had been hit with the short-range and solid-propellant Badr P-1 missile on Sunday.

It added that the projectile had struck the designated target with precision, leaving an unspecified number of soldiers either killed or wounded. The explosion also inflicted damage to the hardware and equipment of the base.

Last month, the Yemeni army unveiled its domestically-designed missile, which is an upgrade of Badr-1 short-range ballistic missile, intended to precisely hit specific targets, minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against designated targets. The Badr P-1 missile has a pinpoint accuracy of 3 meters, the army says.

Earlier on Sunday, Yemeni army hit a Saudi-led military base in Nihm district in Yemen’s west-central province of Sana’a, inflicting casualties on the Saudi enemy and caused material damage to the base, another report by al-Masirah said.

Leading a coalition of its allies, most prominently the UAE, Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Yemen’s former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had resigned amid popular discontent and fled to the Arab kingdom.

The aggression initially consisted of a bombing campaign but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen. 

Since the onset of the imposed war, the Yemeni army, backed by fighters of the country’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, has been defending the impoverished nation against the brutal aggression. The coalition is also resolute to crush the movement as another goal in its war on Yemen, which is teetering on the edge of famine.

More than three and a half years into the war, Saudi Arabia has achieved neither of its objectives. Riyadh had declared at the start of the invasion that the war would take no more than a couple of weeks. 

Back in June, the Emirati forces, backed by armed militia loyal to Hadi, launched a full-scale offensive against the Houthi-held Hudaydah, which is currently under a tight siege imposed by the invaders. The so-called liberation operation, however, failed to achieve its objective, which is overrunning the vital port and defeating Houthi fighters, backed by those from the Popular Committees.  

Over the past several months, humanitarian organizations have warned that military operations against Hudaydah threaten to cut off essential supplies to millions of Yemeni people. More than 70 percent of Yemen's imports pass through Hudaydah’s docks.

The coalition claims Houthis are using Hudaydah for weapons delivery, an allegation rejected by Ansarullah fighters.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

A number of Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.


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