Yemen’s Houthi leader threatens to hit back over Saudi blockade

The leader of Yemen's Ansarullah movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, has promised retaliatory attacks in response to a land, aerial and naval blockade imposed on his impoverished country by a Saudi-led military alliance.

According to Press TV, addressing his supporters via a televised speech from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Thursday, Houthi warned against “tightening the blockade.”

Riyadh imposed a tight blockade on nearly all Yemen’s air, land and sea ports after Yemeni forces on November 5 launched a solid propellant and Scud-type Borkan-2 (Volcano-2) missile against King Khalid International Airport, located 35 kilometers north of the Saudi capital Riyadh, in retaliation for Saudi’s devastating aerial bombardment campaign against Yemen.

“Should the blockade continue, we know what (targets) would cause great pain and how to reach them,” he said.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of the Ansarullah movement supporters gathered in the Sabaeen Square of Sana’a on Thursday afternoon to commemorate the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), heeding a call to attend the event.

The rally came after late night mediation attempts between supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Ansarullah movement failed to reconcile both sides.

Yemeni security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said deadly clashes between Ansarullah revolutionaries and Saleh’s supporters continued for a second day on Thursday.

The officials said Ansarullah fighters moved against forces loyal to Saleh while accusing the latter of fomenting a coup with the help of the United Arab Emirates.

It appeared the clashes began on Wednesday evening with a dispute over the capital's Saleh Mosque, where Ansarullah wanted to hold festivities for Prophet Muhammad's birthday.

The skirmishes killed nine Ansarullah fighters and five loyalists to the former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Ansarullah movement and reinstate Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

SS