Yemen targets Saudi assets with ballistic missiles, inflicts ‘dozens of casualties’
Saudi assets have come under heavy fire since Riyadh launched its major escalation against Sanaa last month
The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced a series of new missile and drone strikes targeting Saudi troops and assets in southwestern Yemen, detailing the operations in a statement released on its official page late on 11 August.
The Ansarallah-led Yemeni army said it “succeeded in targeting Saudi enemy troop concentrations, weapons depots, and command headquarters in Al-Mokha area and Tadaween Camp in Marib Governorate.”
The military said it used “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones.”
“The strikes were accurate … and resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries, including Saudis. [We] will continue operations targeting all Saudi troop concentrations through which they seek to escalate the situation and seize control of our dear country,” the YAF said.
“The Armed Forces renew their warning to all those from our country who have been deceived or misled to leave the path of collaboration and treason before it is too late,” it added.
Saudi military assets and proxies in Al-Mokha and elsewhere have come under heavy YAF attacks in recent days, following Riyadh’s massive escalation last month against the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Fresh Saudi attacks on the country last month have instigated a YAF naval blockade on Saudi shipping and missile and drone strikes against the kingdom, including destructive attacks on an Aramco site in Saudi Arabia.
That Aramco site, located in the kingdom’s Jizan area, was set ablaze and forced shut by Yemen.
On Monday, the YAF killed two Saudi-backed soldiers in the southern Shabwa governorate. Saudi-backed troops have launched their own operations targeting what they call the “Houthi rebels.”
The Ansarallah-led Yemeni military released footage late on 9 August showing recent operations targeting “Saudi enemy force concentrations” and weapons sites in Al-Mokha, southwestern Yemen.
Recent Yemeni operations targeting the kingdom and its assets coincide with Saudi efforts to form a Red Sea naval coalition.
Reports also say the kingdom is planning a major assault on Yemen involving land and sea operations.
The Yemeni escalation was prompted by last month’s Saudi strikes on Sanaa International Airport, which has been under blockade by the kingdom for more than a decade since Riyadh launched its war on Yemen in 2015.
A 2023 peace process failed to end the war but froze the escalation until Ansarallah began mobilizing to expel Saudi forces from Yemen this year.
Yemen has warned that further Saudi escalation will be met with severe retaliation.
“Indicators show that the Saudis are heading toward full-scale escalation ... We will meet Saudi's full escalation with full escalation. The oppressor will learn [that] America won't save him. Britain won't save him. Israel, the Zionist enemy, won't save him,” Ansarallah leader Abdel Malik al-Houthi said last month.