Yemeni forces target off-shore UAE-run base

Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have launched a missile attack against a naval base run by soldiers from the United Arab Emirates off the western coast of Yemen.

Yemeni forces and their allies fired a Borkan-1 (Volcano-1) missile at the al-Ghazat base on Zuqar Island in the Red Sea, which lies between the coasts of mainland Yemen and Eritrea, on Tuesday morning, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

Information was not immediately available on possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

Saudi Arabia lunched a war on Yemen in 2015 in an attempt to bring back to power a former regime that had been Riyadh-friendly.

According to the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, the Yemeni conflict has claimed the lives of 10,000 people and left 40,000 others wounded.

McGoldrick told reporters in Sana’a on January 16 that the figure is based on lists of victims gathered by health facilities and the actual number might be higher.

Local Yemeni sources say the Saudi war has claimed the lives of at least 11,400 people.

Yemeni forces have been fighting the Saudi war back, including by launching retaliatory measures against Saudi forces and their local mercenaries.

Separately, scores of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen’s former government were killed and wounded in the Midi district of the northwestern Hajjah Province as Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committee fighters thwarted their offensive.

Saudi warplanes also dropped a number of internationally-banned cluster bombs in the Rahban district of the northwestern mountainous province of Sa’ada, leaving several buildings damaged there.

Dozens of civilians lost their lives and sustained injures as Saudi military aircraft bombed the bridge linking the Red Sea port city of Mokha to the city of Hudaydah.

Moreover, Saudi jets carried out a series of airstrikes against the city of Sirwah, which lies about 120 kilometers east of the capital, though no reports of casualties were quickly available.

A radio mast was also brought down in the al-Marawi’ah district of Hudaydah Province as Saudi warplanes targeted it.

EA