Yemeni forces capture several villages in southwestern Saudi Arabia

Yemeni army troops backed by fighters from Popular Committees have established control over a number of villages in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Jizan as they continue to gain ground in the area.

Yemeni soldiers and their allied forces pressed ahead with their ground offensive in the al-Khobe district of the region, located 966 kilometers (600 miles) south of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday evening, and seized control of several villages, Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen satellite television news network reported.

The development comes only two days after Yemeni soldiers launched an operation in the same Saudi district, killing at least 13 Saudi troops.

Moreover, Yemeni soldiers fired a number of mortar shells at a military camp in the al-Rahwa Village of Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Asir region. No reports on possible casualties and the extent of damage were immediately available.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday morning, Saudi fighter jets conducted seven aerial attacks against various areas in the city of Sirwah, which lies about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. There were no immediate reports of possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

Saudi warplanes also launched three airstrikes against the Abs district of Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah, located 127 kilometers (78 miles) northwest of Sana’a, though no reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused were available.

Additionally, Saudi jets bombed the military camp for the Yemeni Army’s 117th Brigade in the town of Mukayras in Yemen’s central province of al-Bayda. However, there were no immediate reports of casualties and the extent of damage inflicted.

Also on Wednesday, a Yemeni civilian sustained injuries, and several buildings were destroyed when Saudi warplanes pounded a residential neighborhood in the Sahar district of the mountainous northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada.

Saudi aircraft bombed Al Salem School in the same Yemeni district, inflicting heavy damage to its structure.

There are also reports that Saudi military aircraft have struck a district in the province of Sa’ada with cluster bombs. A civilian was injured and a number of residential buildings were destroyed in the raids.

Saudi jets also pounded a number of areas in the provinces of Ma’rib and Hajjah, but there was no word on possible casualties.

Scores of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists alongside militiamen loyal to fugitive former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi were also killed and injured as Yemeni army soldiers and their allies carried out a ground offensive in the al-Taiziyah district of Yemen’s southwestern province of Ta’izz.

There has been no reports on the casualties among Yemeni forces. 

Yemen has been under military strikes by Saudi Arabia on a daily basis since March 26. The strikes are supposedly meant to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

According to a new tally, at least 7,000 people have lost their lives in the Saudi strikes, and a total of nearly 14,000 people have been injured since March.

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