Yemeni drones hit airbase in southern Saudi Arabia

Yemeni army, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, has launched a drone attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern province of Asir.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said the domestically-developed Qasef-2K (Striker-2K) targeted King Khalid Air Base near the city of Khamis Mushait in the southwestern province of Asir on Sunday.

He reiterated that the attack has been carried out in reaction to the crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition, noting that the Saudi warplanes conducted 36 airstrikes over the past 48 hours and claimed the lives of many people.

Meanwhile, Yemeni forces killed and injured a number of Saudi soldiers in an artillery attack on military positions near al-Tewal crossing linking Yemen with Saudi Arabia on Monday, a military source said.

A vehicle of the Saudi troops was also destroyed in the attack.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies -- including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The United Nations (UN) says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

The war was launched to eliminate Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore the former regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to power in Yemen.

For the past four years, Hadi, who lives in Riyadh, has based his “government” in Aden, describing it as Yemen’s “temporary capital.”

Rift exposed

Meanwhile, divisions within the coalition have been exposed after UAE-backed militants seized control of the strategic port city of Aden.

The Saudi fighter jets on Sunday carried out air raids on a position of the UAE-backed militants in Aden, describing the site as a “threat”.

“This is only the first operation and will be followed by others... the Southern Transitional Council (STC) still has a chance to withdraw,” Saudi state TV quoted a coalition statement as saying, in reference to the UAE-backed militants.

PressTV-Saudi-led coalition attacks Emirati-backed militia in Aden

The Saudi-led coalition that has invaded Yemen attacks a position of militia backed by coalition partner the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Aden, describing the site as “a threat.”

“This weakens the coalition by exposing undeniable cracks beneath the surface,” said Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen scholar at Oxford University’s Pembroke College, adding “It is becoming increasingly obvious that the UAE and Saudi Arabia do not share the same end goals in Yemen.”

The infighting erupted between groups of militia receiving support from either Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the southern city on Wednesday, when a group of separatist militia in southern Yemen were attending a funeral for dozens of fellows, including a senior militant commander who had been killed in a missile attack by the Houthi fighters.

The separatists, who are backed by the UAE and are known as the Southern Transitional Council (STC), accused a political party allied to Saudi-backed forces of complicity in the missile attack and clashes broke out between the sides.

‘Successful coup’

A spokesperson for the STC told CNN on Sunday that the group took over the city including its presidential palace, port and airport.

"We are not inside the presidential compound, which is on an island, but we have secured its entrances and exits," Nizar Haytham added.

The interior minister of Hadi’s government conceded a defeat, saying the UAE-backed militants staged a "successful coup."

"The successful coup destroyed what's left of this country's sovereignty," Ahmed al-Maysary said in a video he recorded in Aden right before fleeing to Riyadh.

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