Several Saudi troops killed in Yemeni forces’ retaliatory attack on Jizan

As Reported by Qods News Agency (Qodsna) According to Yemeni media, the drone attack was conducted by the Yemeni army and popular forces, and targeted a gathering of Saudi soldiers in Jizan region.

The attack reportedly left a number of soldiers killed and injured.

Yemen’s Houghi Ansarullah movement had previously threatened to carry out more retaliatory attacks against the Saudi-backed forces.

Among those injured were deputy chief of staff Saleh al-Zandani, senior commander Fadel Hasan, and Lahij provincial governor Ahmad Abdullah al-Turki, with AFP saying the latter two had been transferred to Saudi Arabia for treatment.

The Ansarullah movement said that Thursday’s drone attack came in response to the continued aggression and blockade by the Saudi-backed forces, and repeated Saudi airstrikes which have put a UN-brokered peace agreement in the strategic port city of Hudaydah in jeopardy. 

In December, the Ansarullah movement and Yemen’s former Saudi-backed government signed an agreement for a ceasefire in Hudaydah during UN-brokered peace talks held in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. However, the Saudi coalition has repeatedly violated the truce deal.

According to the agreement, the Houthi fighters, who are in control of Hudaydah, and Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s armed militia together with Saudi-led forces — who have placed the city under a tight siege since June — must withdraw from the port and hand it over to UN observers.

Meanwhile, the Ansarullah movement’s chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam announced on Sunday the Houthis have boycotted the ceasefire monitoring team in Hudaydah, accusing the head of the team of pursuing “other agendas.”

The Yemeni official said retired Dutch Major General Patrick Cammaert, who was to chair the meeting, had “exited from the course of the agreement by implementing other agendas.”

Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen in 2015 with the aim of reinstating former president Hadi who resigned amid a political deadlock in January 2015 and then fled to Riyadh. 

The invasion has fallen short of its purpose, but has reportedly killed over 56,000 people and put the country in the throes of an acute famine.

With the war drawn into a deadlock, Saudi Arabia is virtually mired in a quagmire, having faced repeated military backlashes in Yemen and reprisal attacks inside its own territories.