Yemen’s Ansarullah targets Saudi military bases in retaliation for airstrikes
Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance group launched a fresh barrage of missile and drone attacks on Saudi military targets on Monday.
The group, fighting the Saudi-backed government, last week seized control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which has become vital as the wider US-Iran war chokes the Strait of Hormuz.
The Ansarullah said they fired dozens of drones and missiles at the kingdom, prompting the Saudi Civil Defense to issue brief alerts in the neighboring cities of Khamis Mushait and Abha.
A Khamis Mushait resident told AFP he heard “intense blasts” which left fires burning for a “long time".
“Honestly, we couldn’t sleep at all.”
The Bab al-Mandab waterway has become essential for Saudi oil exports, with Iran continuing to block the Hormuz strait as part of the Middle East war, but the Ansarullah has declared a maritime blockade on Riyadh.
Iran on Monday denied any involvement in the country’s revived civil war.
“Iran does not interfere in Yemeni affairs,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters on Monday, saying the Ansarullah fighters are “entirely independent actors who make their decisions based on their own interests".
Yemen’s prolonged civil war had been dormant for four years before bursting back into life in July over an Iranian flight to the capital Sana’a, as it became the latest conflict drawn into the wider regional war.
The Ansarullah’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said Monday that the group’s latest strikes targeted “fighter jet hangars, radars, runways, ammunition depots” at King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, in retaliation for airstrikes by Riyadh.
He accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out “more than 300 airstrikes in the past five days” across Yemen.
Yemeni Saudi-backed forces on Sunday said they had recaptured positions in the southwestern province of Taiz from Ansarullah’s fighters and carried out airstrikes, telling the official Saba news agency they killed at least ten gunmen.
Last week, American media reported that US President Donald Trump had rejected a personal request from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, to intervene in the war.
The Saudi crown prince received the commander of the US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, in Jeddah on Monday to discuss “the latest developments in the region", according to Saudi news agency SPA.