Saudi-Led Coalition Launches Fresh Air Assault against Yemen
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Saudi-led coalition on Saturday launched a "large-scale" assault on Yemen, killing three people and wounding six others in Ajama, a town northwest of Sanaa, Yemeni medics said.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the United States and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.
Tens of thousands of people have since been killed, in what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Despite Saudi Arabia’s incessant bombardment of the impoverished country, Yemeni armed forces have grown steadily in strength and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.
Yemen’s army spokesperson said Saturday that country’s forces have targeted 'sensitive' Saudi sites in Jizan province, in retaliation for a recent air assault during the previous week as well as continued aggression by the Saudi-coalition, warning the kingdom that Yemen will respond to aggression with strength.
He said the Yemeni army had struck important and sensitive sites in the Saudi port city of Jizan with modern precision-guided missiles in retaliation to Saudi attacks.
The retaliatory attack follows intensified Saudi airstrikes against Yemen in the past few days.
Yemeni officials condemned Saudi airstrikes on hospitals and medical centers in the capital Sana’a as “war crimes”, calling on international organizations to intervene and stop them.
The World Food Program said it has been "forced" to cut aid to Yemen due to lack of funds, and warned of a surge in hunger in the country.
"From January, eight million will receive a reduced food ration, while five million at immediate risk of slipping into famine conditions will remain on a full ration," the UN agency said in a statement, adding that it was "running out of funds".
The UN estimated that the ongoing US-backed Saudi war on Yemen will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts.
More than 80 percent of Yemen's population of about 30 million requires humanitarian assistance in what the UN says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
