Saudis have gained nothing in Yemen war: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hussain al-Bukhaiti, activist and political commentator in Sana’a, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military aggression against Yemen.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The city of Aden, Aden as a whole is very pivotal to this Saudi war on Yemen and after more than a hundred days Saudi Arabia has failed to actually gain control of it including the forces on the ground that are fighting against the Ansarullah movement. Why is Aden so important in this war?

Bukhaiti: Because Aden is like the capital of the Saudi-led coalition. Have a chance or if they can take it, it is the jewel of their operation in Yemen because till now the Saudis and their loyalists in Yemen and with their 119 days of constant strikes across Yemen, they have not gained one meter in the country.

So when they launched this attack two days ago, they did control the airport and areas in Khormaksar. This is the area where the airport is situated and now is almost you can say that no one is in control of the airport because Ansarullah movement and the Popular Committee and the Yemeni army they avoid to go into the airport because it is an open area, it is like a field, because it is under constant attack of the Saudi-led coalition but the airport is under their fire range and it cannot be used in the advantage of Hadi militia.

And as you mentioned they launched an attack today on Attawahi but they failed and dozens were killed and many armed vehicles were destroyed and many as well were taken by the Popular Committee and the Yemeni army.

Press TV: The news about how the AQAP, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has not been targeted by these Saudi airstrikes, well news just came out finally saying that there are some - what they categorize in the media as Sunni fighters - who are now asking al-Qaeda to join their fight against the Ansarullah movement on the ground. So in a way that may show how Saudis are directly supporting al-Qaeda on the ground?  

Bukhaiti: Yes exactly because when they launched this attack in Aden, just in the first day there were videos published in media as al-Qaeda media and as well in Hadi militia and Saudi media, showing al-Qaeda fighters with their flags and celebrating of their gains in Khormaksar and as well yesterday there were videos posted on YouTube for Hadi militia executing some Ansarullah fighters and Yemeni army who were caught during the first attack on the airport and one of the videos there were two – I believe they were Yemeni soldiers - and the video was about three minutes long and during this three minutes almost two minutes of it they were shooting those two prisoners with AK-47 and I think thousands of bullets were used just to kill two people.

And if this is not al-Qaeda and if Hadi and the Saudis say there is no al-Qaeda in Aden, so it does not matter for the Yemenis. I mean if you act and behave and kill and executed prisoners like al-Qaeda, there is no difference for us, you are a criminal and you must go from Yemen and the Yemeni army and the Popular Committee will fight and will go after you wherever you are.

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