Yemeni army troops, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have taken full control of a strategic area in the country’s northern province of Hajjah close to the border with Saudi Arabia.
Faraan: Military sources, requesting anonymity, told Yemen News Portal website that Yemeni soldiers and allied fighters established control over al-Hathera area in the Harad district on Thursday, after they exchanged heavy gunfire with Saudi-paid militants.
The sources said Yemeni army troops and Popular Committees fighter also captured a military camp in the area, which housed Saudi mercenaries of Sudanese origin. The development came a day after Yemeni forces fired ballistic missiles at a military base of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Hajjah province, killing 10 Sudanese soldiers.
“The missiles struck the units of Sudanese troops, who are part of the Saudi-led coalition, in Hajjah province near the border with Saudi Arabia,” a local military source said on condition of anonymity. “A total of 10 Sudanese soldiers were killed and more than 25 others injured in Hajjah’s district of Midi.” Meanwhile, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network said Saudi warplanes had carried out eight air raids against the Harad district in the country’s northwestern province of Hajjah. Saudi jets also bombed the Hayran district.
Warplanes launched six airstrikes on al-Ajasher desert area close to Saudi Arabia’s southern region of Najran as well. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.
Saudi-led fighter jets also conducted four raids on the al-Jubah and Wadi al-Ubaidah districts of the central Yemeni province of Ma’rib, in addition to four aerial assaults on an area in the At Tuhayat district of the western province of Hudaydah.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western states. The war has stopped well shy of all of its goals, despite killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemeni forces have continued to grow stronger in the face of the Saudi-led invaders, advancing toward strategic areas held by Saudi-led mercenaries, including Ma’rib province, and conducting several rounds of counterstrikes against Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent months. The objective was to return to power the former Riyadh-backed regime and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
