Yemen repels Saudi-led strike in west, vows to liberate all homeland

Yemeni defense forces have successfully repeled an attack in western Yemen by forces tied to Saudi-led invaders, pledging to continue their fight until complete liberation of the homeland.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network reported the victory that took place in the coastal province of al-Hudaydah on Sunday, citing a statement by Yemen’s Army and Popular Committees.

A Saudi-led coalition has been waging a war on the Arab world’s already poorest nation for around seven years now. The invaders have been seeking to restore power to Yemen’s former Riyadh-allied officials, who have fled the country, refusing to settle a power struggle.

The warfare has so far killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and forced the entire nation close to the brink of famine.

Yemen’s defense forces have, meanwhile, been responding to the aggressors’ brutality with persistent retaliatory strikes. Many of the counterstrikes have hit the heart of the coalition’s member states, including the Saudi capital and the United Arab Emirates’ financial hotspots.

Al-Mayadeen further cited the statement as making clear that Yemen’s defenders would keep up their struggle “until cleansing the entire Yemeni land of Saudi mercenaries and their allies.”  

“The invading countries and the mercenaries that threaten Yemen will always be within the range of the armed forces’ firepower,” the statement added.

It also urged those who had joined the coalition against Sana’a, especially the Saudi-led mercenaries in Ma’rib, to seize the opportunity of a “general amnesty” that they have been offered and “return to the bosom of the homeland.”

The armed forces have made great strides towards liberating the west-central Yemeni province, moving very close to the provincial capital that bears the same name.

Amid their advances, the coalition has opened up new fronts in al-Hudaydah as well as the neighboring Hajjah and Ta’izz Provinces to the north and south respectively. The intensified aggression has apparently been launched to deflect some of the intense pressure that the Yemeni armed forces are applying against the coalition in Ma’rib.

The areas, where the coalition has been trying to stoke the flames of war in al-Hudaydah, have been specified as the province’s Hays and al-Durayhimi Districts.

The armed forces’ statement, meanwhile, urged Ma’rib tribes to join forces with them to help expel elements of the Daesh and al-Qaeda Takfiri terrorist groups from the provincial capital.

Tribal chiefs in Ma’rib have welcomed the idea of cooperation with the armed forces to confront the terrorist groups.