Army Rejects Saudi Report on Yemeni Drone Targeting

“The drone unit of the Yemeni army has not carried out any operations in the past 12 hours,” General Saree was quoted by the Arabic-language al-Masirah news website as saying on Wednesday.

“The (Saudi-led) coalition’s claim of downing the drone which had flown from al-Hudaydeh is a lie, and we (always) release detailed reports about our military operations,” he added.

The Yemeni Army announced last week that the drone units of the country’s Army and Ansarullah Popular Forces managed to carry out strikes on 2 airports in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Masirah quoted the Yemeni Army as reporting late on Saturday that drone units of the Yemeni Army and Ansarullah Popular Forces hit two airports in Saudi Arabia, using Qasif-K2 combat drones.

On Tuesday, Yemeni Deputy Minister of Information Nasr Eddin Amer warned the UAE that the drone and missile units of the country’s army will strike Emirati ports and airports if Abu Dhabi does not stop anti-Yemen aggressions and support for terrorist groups.

“The Saudi-led coalition’s war has entered its 5th year,” said the Yemeni minister in an interview with FNA, adding, “All options are on the table in fighting against the invading states, as so far the Yemeni Army and popular forces have disrupted all calculations and equations of the aggressors.”

“All airports of the aggressing states of Saudi Arabia and the UAE can be stricken by drone and missile units of the Yemeni Army. These airports had already been hit. Striking vital targets, like ports and airports, in the invader states is among the options of the Yemeni Army,” Nasr Eddin Amer underscored.

“The UAE is playing an active role in the aggression against Yemen, and it is now occupying a number of Yemeni islands and ports, and is currently stoking further clashes inside the country with supporting terrorist groups in Yemen. Hence, the UAE will not remain safe, escaping from the Yemeni Army’s reaction, and if it does stop its aggressions, they will sooner or later witness our reaction,” he underlined.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed more than 20,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fueled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods. The blockade on Yemen has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state.

The UN has repeatedly criticized the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition’s bombing campaign and placed it on a blacklist of child rights violators last year.

A UN panel has also compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.