Saudi, UAE Forces Sustain Heavy Casualties in Western Yemen
Momar al-Subaihi was quoted as saying by the Arabic-language al-Najm al-Saqib news website that a battalion of Amaleqah brigade affiliated to Saudi Arabia and the UAE has sustained heavy casualties in Western Yemen after Abu Dhabi backtracked from its promises to support them by helicopters.
He added that the commander of the battalion first opposed his forces’ advance but a number of the UAE officers convinced him that an Apache helicopter will provide them with air support, but this did not happen and over 100 Saudi and UAE mercenaries were killed, wounded and held captive.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 17,500 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.
Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fuelled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods.
A UN panel has compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.
