The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says army troops and allied fighters from Popular Committees have launched a string of retaliatory drone attacks on an airbase in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern region of Asir as well as a state-owned Saudi Aramco oil facility in the kingdom’s southern region of Jizan.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a statement that two domestically developed Qasef-2K (Striker-2K) armed drones struck with great precision the designated “important and sensitive” targets in King Khalid Air Base, which lies 884 kilometers south of the Saudi capital Riyadh, early on Friday.
The attack came just a day after a successful drone attack against the same military site in southwestern Saudi Arabia.
Saree added that a Yemeni Sammad-3 (Invincible-3) combat drone also hit a key Saudi Aramco oil installation in Jizan, situated 966 kilometers south of Riyadh, at Friday dawn.
The senior Yemeni official warned that retaliatory attacks will continue as long as Riyadh continues its relentless military aggression and all-out siege against the war-ravaged Arab country.
Saree later announced in a post published on his Twitter page that Yemeni armed forces launched another retaliatory strike against King Khalid Air Base at 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) on Friday, using a Qasef-2K drone.
He emphasized that the air raid was accurate, and hit “an import military site” inside the airbase.
The high-ranking Yemeni military official described the strike as a legitimate response to the Saudi regime’s devastating military campaign and ongoing siege against his country.
Also early on Friday, Saudi forces fired volleys of artillery rounds and rockets at residential neighborhoods in the Razih district of Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada.
There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage inflicted.
Saudi warplanes also carried out 16 airstrikes against the Sirwah district in the strategic Yemeni province of Ma’rib, though no reports of possible casualties and damage were quickly available.
Furthermore, forces of the Saudi-led military coalition and their mercenaries have violated 215 times during the past 24 hours a ceasefire agreement between warring sides for the western coastal province of Hudaydah.
Yemen’s al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed source in Yemen’s Liaison and Coordination Officers Operations Room, reported that the violations included 20 reconnaissance flights over various regions, including Kilo 16 and al-Jabaliya neighborhoods as well as Hays and al-Durayhimi districts, in addition to 26 counts of artillery shelling and 165 shooting incidents.
Delegates from the Ansarullah movement and representatives loyal to former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi attended the peace negotiations in Rimbo on the outskirts of Stockholm in December 2018. The talks resulted in the announcement of a breakthrough agreement.
The document included three provisions: a ceasefire along the Hudaydah front and the redeployment of armed forces out of the city and its port; an agreement on prisoner exchange; and a statement of understanding on the southern Yemeni city of Ta’izz.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and other regional allies, launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing 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 war 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.