Yemeni armed forces have launched missile and drones strikes against a strategic target in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, as they step up their campaign of retaliation against the aggressor kingdom.
Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said Thursday that a domestically-developed Zofaqar ballistic missile and four Samad-3 drones were used to hit the “important target” in Riyadh, the al-Masirah television reported.
He said Yemeni forces will keep up their retaliatory raids against sensitive and strategic targets on Saudi soil as long as Riyadh and its allies fail to end their military campaign and siege against Yemen.
“We promise the criminal and aggressor Saudi regime painful operations as long as the aggression and siege continues,” the military official said.
The attack on Riyadh followed four consecutive days of Yemeni air raids against Abha International Airport located near Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border with Yemen.
The Saudi regime has not yet commented on the report, but it usually claims to have intercepted the drones and missiles fired from Yemen.
Since early 2015, Riyadh and a coalition of its vassal states have been engaged in a military campaign against Yemen in a futile attempt to reinstall a Saudi-friendly government there.
The Western-backed war, which has been accompanied by a crippling blockade of Yemen, has killed tens of thousands of people and afflicted the already-poorest Arabian Peninsula nation with the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” according to the UN.
Backed by the armed forces and allied popular groups, the Houthi movement has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led aggression, preventing the invaders from achieving their goals of war.
The Yemeni forces have, in recent days, stepped up their defense campaign against Riyadh, which has tightened its siege of Yemen by blocking the entry of fuel and humanitarian supplies into the war-torn country.
Yemen said earlier in the week that the Sana’a International Air Port was about to suspend its activities due to a severe shortage of fuel, leaving thousands of Yemeni patients in need of medical treatment abroad in limbo.
The lack of fuel is also pushing all working health facilities in the Arab country toward total suspension, the Health Ministry has warned.