Yemen: Ansarullah Captures Several Saudi Spies

The Ansarullah fighters identified and arrested several spies working for Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service, media sources said on Monday.

According to a report by the London-based daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Ansarullah popular fighters nailed several Yemeni army men on Monday on charges of treason and conducting covert operations against the Arab country.

The report added that the popular forces arrested the moles after having them under surveillance for weeks.

Earlier, US officials said that the United States is expanding its intelligence-sharing with Saudi Arabia to provide more information about potential targets in the kingdom’s air campaign against Yemen.

“We have opened up the aperture a bit wider with what we are sharing with our Saudi partners,” said one US official.

“We are helping them get a better sense of the battlefield and the state of play with the Ansarullah forces,” he added.

US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on April 8 that the United States is accelerating arms supplies and bolstering intelligence sharing with a Saudi-led alliance bombing neighboring Yemen.

“As part of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint co-ordination planning cell in the Saudi operation center,” added Blinken.

Also, according to an article published by Foreign Policy on March 26, the US is providing Saudi Arabia with real-time intelligence to carry out airstrikes against Yemen.

The CIA maintains at least one drone base in Saudi Arabia, while the US military flies manned and unmanned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft out of Djibouti. Both bases can expect to be busy sending aircraft over Yemen in the days ahead, according to US Defense Department official.

The article further added, “Additionally, while Saudi Arabia has long maintained an extensive network of spies in Yemen, it may now benefit from the United States’ history of espionage on the ground. Although the withdrawal of all US personnel from Yemen has complicated US efforts to run human intelligence operations in the country, the phone lines are not dead.”

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 19 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed over 1042 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. The attacks have also left more than 2500 people injured.

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.

Five Persian Gulf States — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait — and Egypt that are also assisted by Israel and backed by the US declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued on March 26.