The Yemeni army says it has launched a fresh drone strike on a major airbase in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern province of Asir in retaliation.
Army troops and allied fighters from Popular Committees hit designated targets inside King Khalid Airbase near the city of Khamis Mushait, 884 km south of Riyadh, in the early hours of Sunday, Army spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree tweeted.
نفذ سلاح الجو المسير عملية هجومية على قاعدة الملك خالد الجوية بخميس مشيط بطائرة مسيرة نوع قاصف 2K وكانت الإصابة دقيقة بفضل الله.
— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) April 25, 2021
يأتي هذا الاستهداف في إطار الرد المشروع على تصعيد العدوان والحصار المتواصل على بلدنا العزيز.
Yemen's al-Masirah television network quoted Saree as saying that the retaliatory attack was carried out by a domestically-developed Qasef-2K (Striker-2K) combat drone.
The strike, he said, was “accurate,” which came in response to the continuing aggression and brutal siege on his country.
On Friday, Yemeni forces targeted the same airbase and a state-owned Saudi Aramco oil facility in the kingdom’s southern region of Jizan.
Saree said then that two domestically developed Qasef-2K (Striker-2K) armed drones struck with great precision “important and sensitive” targets at King Khalid Airbase.
A Yemeni Sammad-3 (Invincible-3) combat drone also struck a key Aramco installation in Jizan, 966 kilometers south of Riyadh at dawn.
Yemeni armed forces launched another strike against King Khalid Airbase at 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) Friday, using a Qasef-2K drone.
Saree said the air raid was accurate, and hit “an import military site” inside the airbase, describing it a legitimate response to the Saudi regime’s devastating military campaign and siege.
On Saturday, Saudi warplanes bombed the Harad district in Yemen’s northern province of Hajjah, though no reports of possible casualties and damage were quickly available.
Saudi military aircraft also attacked the Sirwah district in the strategic Yemeni province of Ma’rib on 19 occasions.
Moreover, forces of the Saudi-led military coalition and their mercenaries violated more than 100 times during the past 24 hours a ceasefire agreement in Hudaydah.
An unnamed source in Yemen’s Liaison and Coordination Officers Operations Room said the violations included 14 counts of artillery shelling and 84 shooting incidents.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and other regional allies, launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s government back to power and crushing Ansarullah.
Yemeni armed forces and allied Popular Committees have, however, gone from strength to strength against the Saudi-led invaders, and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.
The Saudi-led military aggression has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions of people. It has also destroyed Yemen's infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases across the country.