23 Dec 2024
Sunday 6 May 2018 - 12:48
Story Code : 303814

Yemeni ballistic missile destroys Saudi positions in Asir: TV



Press TV - The Yemeni army and allied fighters have hitmilitary positions in Saudi Arabias Asir region with a ballistic missile and destroyed them,Yemens al-Masirah television said on Sunday.

A Zalzal 2missile was fired at the Ain al-Thwareen base in retaliation for Saudi airstrikes, which hit its target and left an unknown number of casualties, it added.

Yemeni snipers also killed two Saudi troops atthe Haskul military base in Jizan, while armyartillery units pommeled the kingdom's military positions in the region, the report said.

Meanwhile, Saudi warplanes bombedparts of Saada, Hudaydah, and Hajjah provinces in northern Yemen.

In Saada, five members of a family were killed after Saudi aircraft bombed a residence in the Baqim district.

Two more civilians were killed in Saudi air raids in al-Jarahi district in Hudaydah, while there wasno immediate word on possible casualties in Hajjah which has beenbombed 10 times over the past 24 hours.

Yemeni forces have stepped up their response to Saudi airstrikes with game-changer missile attacks which have become a major headache for the kingdom and its supporters.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that about a dozen commandos with the US Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets, had been deployed to Saudi Arabias southern border regions with the aim of countering Yemeni missiles.



The deployment came following reports thatPatriot interceptors supplied by the US to Saudi Arabia were increasingly failing against missiles fired by Houthi fighters.

The secretive US mission, according to the report, is aimed at helping Saudi forces locate Yemeni missile launch sites and destroy the missile supplies of the Houthi movement.

Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen since 2015 and punishing it witha crippling blockadeon Yemeni ports, airports and borders crossings, which has restrictedfood, aid and vital supplies from entering the impoverished country.

Fissures in Saudi-led coalition

The UAE was the first country to join the Saudi war against Yemen but fissures have emerged in their alliance recently as each side has beentrying to carveout a zone of influence in the territories theyseize.

On Friday, adelegation of Saudi officials visited Yemens Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean after the UAE deployed troops and tanks there against the will of a regimesupported by Riyadh.

The deployment came amid widening divisions between forces loyal to the UAE and those supporting former Yemeni presidentAbd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. Both camps are based in southern Yemen and mostly in Aden where they haveclashed several times.

Hadi's loyalists have accused Emirati forces of providing support to those seeking a separation of Yemen's southern territories from the north of the country.

In Socotra, reports have saidthe UAE was seeking to illegally exploit the island's pristine natural resources and turn it into apermanent military outpost-cum-holiday resort.

Socotra, located near Somalia in the Gulf of Aden,is protected by the UN cultural agency UNESCO, meaning that even the Yemeni government is unable to interfere in the natural habitats and places of natural beauty.



Reports have suggested that the UAE has been actively cementing its presence in Socotra since the very beginning of the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Videos posted on social media purportedly show residents of Socotra angrily reacting to the new Emirati deployment.

On Saturday,the foreign ministry of Yemen's SupremePoliticalCouncil - the de facto administration based in the capital Sana'a - denounced the UAE's troop deployment to Socotra.

"The islands occupation betrays the goal and nature of the occupation by the Saudi-led Arab coalitions forces, saida source at the ministry who asked not to be named.

The invading countries are trying to impose their control on the southern Yemen areas and islands, he added.

Last year, UAE-backed separatists began confronting Hadi's loyalists in Aden which is key tocontrolling the nearby Bab el-Mandeb Strait through which an estimated 12.5 to 20 percent of global trade passes every year.

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