Saudi Arabia has upped the ante in the war on Yemen by conducting a new round of airstrikes targeting various areas across the crisis-hit country, as Riyadh and its regional allies forge ahead with their devastating war and brutal siege against the Yemeni people.
Saudi warplanes carried out five air raids against al-‘Anab residential neighborhood in the capital Sana’a late on Sunday, said Yemen’s al-Masirah television network.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or extent of damage.
Shortly afterward, the al-Masirah TV broadcast video footage that appeared to show the aftermath of the Saudi airstrikes, which targeted a car maintenance workshop.
Earlier in the day, Saudi fighter jets had launched 34 airstrikes against different areas in Yemen’s oil-producing central province of Ma’rib.
The official Saba news agency, citing a security official, reported that the aerial assaults hit al-Jubah and Sirwah districts.
The raids caused severe damage to civilian structures and private properties, the official said.
Moreover, Saudi aircraft bombarded the Maqbanah district in the southern Yemeni province of Ta’izz on three occasions, though no reports about possible casualties were quickly available.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi’s government back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.
Despite heavily-armed Saudi Arabia’s incessant bombardment of the impoverished country, the Yemeni armed forces and the Popular Committees have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.
Hundreds of Hudaydah truce violations in 24 hours
The Saudi-led military coalition has violated 267 times during the 24 hours to Monday a ceasefire agreement between the warring sides on the western coastal province of Hudaydah.
Al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed source in Yemen’s Liaison and Coordination Officers Operations Room, reported that the violations included dozens of reconnaissance flights over various regions, including Hays, al-Jarrahi, Faza, and al-Jabaliyah neighborhoods, in addition to 134 counts of artillery shelling and 98 shooting incidents.
Yemeni forces repel massive attacks in Hudaydah
Additionally, Yemeni army forces and fighters from the Popular Committees managed to repulse massive attacks by Saudi-backed mercenaries in Yemen’s western province of Hudaydah.
A number of Saudi-sponsored mercenaries loyal to Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh, were killed and injured in a counterattack mounted by the Yemeni troops in the Hays district of the province, according to Yemen News Portal.
‘Saudis failed to achieve sinister goals in Yemen’
An unnamed official at the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabia has failed to obtain any of its aggressive and sinister objectives in Yemen, hailing the steadfastness of the Yemeni nation, their belief in their just cause, and their total rejection of foreign interference.
“The Saudi-led coalition’s failure to achieve its malicious goals has resulted in confusion of the alliance member states. They sometimes try to mislead the international community through alleged support for a peaceful political solution to Yemen conflict, and at other times threaten to launch fresh military strikes,” the official told Saba news agency.
He also lambasted the policy of starvation pursued by the Saudi war coalition against Yemeni, stressing that the practice aggravates the repercussions of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the country as ships loaded with oil derivatives, natural gas, and foodstuff are not allowed to unload their consignments at the port of Hudaydah.
While Sana’a can respond to the excesses of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi regimes at an appropriate time and place, it still adheres to the principle of just and honorable peace for Yemeni people, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry official pointed out.
It will not, however, accept the continuation of the Saudi war and comprehensive siege through which the alliance is seeking to falsely portray the Yemen crisis as nothing but an internal conflict, the official added.
He also highlighted that all evidence confirms the fact that what is happening in Yemen is a direct and clear act of aggression from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Yemen and its people.