Saudi Army Acknowledges Death Toll in Eastern Yemen
Ten Saudi soldiers have been killed in a recent attack in Yemen, a senior Saudi military official announced on Saturday.
Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri, Spokesman of the Saudi-led war on Yemen, confirmed that the ten Saudi military men were killed during the attack of the Yemeni forces on an arms depot in al-Safer region in the Eastern parts of Yemen.
The UAE army declared that it has lost sum 22 army men in the attack, but a top Yemeni tribal source told the state-run TV that the bodies of 103 foreign troopers have been recovered from a military airport in the Central Yemeni province of Ma’rib, where they came under a rocket attack by Yemeni army forces and allied Popular Committees.
The source said authorities have identified 45 Emirati nationals as well as five Bahraini citizens among the soldiers slain in al-Safer airport, adding that the remaining corpses belong to individuals from other Arab nations that have joined the coalition, Arabic-language al-Masirah satellite television network reported.
He further noted that at least 70 people, mostly Emirati soldiers, also sustained injures in the Friday afternoon’s incident, and some of them are in critical condition.
The source said more than 40 armored vehicles and military trucks were destroyed in the attack. Three Apache combat helicopters also went up in flames.
In a separate attack, at least 16 Saudi soldiers were killed in an ambush by Yemeni popular forces near the Mash’al base in the province of Jizan in Southern Saudi Arabia.
In the third attack, 5 Bahraini soldiers were killed in Ma’arib in province, Arab media outlets reported.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 164 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 5,653 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
