Yemeni ballistic missile targets Saudi Aramco oil facility in Jizan
Yemeni army forces, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have fired a short-range domestically-manufactured ballistic missile at a Saudi Aramco facility in the kingdom’s southwestern region of Jizan, in retaliation for the Saudi regime’s campaign against the impoverished country, Yemeni media report.
Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing a military official, said on Monday that the short-range Badr-1 ballistic missile had targeted the oil facilities that belong to energy giant Aramco in the Saudi border province of Jizan, adding that the projectile had hit the designated target in the region with great precision.
However, Saudi media, citing the country’s military authorities, claimed that Saudi air defense systems had intercepted the missile in the skies over the region.
Saudi Arabia often claims that it intercepts incoming Yemeni missiles, but a close study of evidence by The New York Times last year clearly suggested that in one of the most high-profile of such Yemeni missile attacks, the projectile, launched deep into Saudi territory, had in fact landed unimpeded, bypassing American-made Patriot missiles and potentially other defenses used by Riyadh. Saudi Arabia claimed that it had foiled that attack, which targeted the Riyadh airport.
Yemeni forces shoot down a Saudi reconnaissance drone over the war-torn country’s central Ma’rib province.
Meanwhile, Ansarullah news portal reported that the Yemeni army, backed by fighters from the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, managed to shoot down a Saudi reconnaissance drone in the Valley of Jarrah in Jizan.
The report added that at least two other a Saudi reconnaissance drones had been shot down by Yemeni air defense unit in Jabal al-Doud district in the same region last week.
Back on October 27, Yemeni forces, using a surface-to-air missile, also shot down a Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet belonging to the Royal Saudi Air Force as it was flying east of the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 in support of the country’s former Riyadh-friendly government. The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the Saudi-led war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured until then.
In one of the deadliest air raids, Saudi warplanes last month targeted a wedding ceremony in Hajjah several times, killing almost 50 people and wounding 55 others. Saudi jets also carried out raids on the ambulances transporting the casualties to local hospitals.
The Saudi-led countries engaged in the war on Yemen have also blockaded the already-impoverished country.
According to the UN figures, a record 22.2 million people in Yemen are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
