Yemen: Pro-Houthi armed forces stage drill near Saudi border on war’s 8th anniversary

Yemen’s Houthi-allied armed forces have conducted military drills close to the Saudi border, marking the eighth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition’s war against the country. According to Al-Masirah, the exercise codenamed ‘Withstanding the Aggression’ simulated an attack on several targets in a variety of terrains, including mountainous, desert-like and forested areas and involved the participation of all military units.

The Ministry of Defence in the Houth-led, de-facto government and the Yemeni Chiefs of Staff have issued a warning in a joint statement to the Saudi-led coalition, that Sanaa’s response to new attacks will take them by surprise.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have staged drills marking nine years of a Saudi-US war on the country, with Yemen’s defense ministry warning the coalition of severe repercussions if the aggression continues. pic.twitter.com/QK0szNztUg

— PressTV Extra (@PresstvExtra) March 23, 2023

“The sovereignty of our homeland and our wealth is a legitimate right that cannot be bargained upon, and we will sacrifice everything in order to defend it,” Major General Muhammad Nasser Al-Atifi and Major General Muhammad Abdul-Karim Al-Ghamari said in the statement.

“Our people will not accept the presence of a foreign occupier in any part of its geography, on land or at sea,” the statement added. “The coalition of aggression and its sponsors must take our warnings seriously.”

Yesterday the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights and the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood announced that nearly 1.5 million civilians have died indirectly as a result of the use of prohibited weapons, the spread of diseases and the siege imposed on Yemen by the US-backed coalition. “The aggression and siege for eight years caused the poverty rate to rise to 95 percent and the unemployment rate to more than 65 percent,” it said.

The manoeuvre was also staged on the advent of the month of Ramadan, a day after at least ten Yemeni soldiers were killed in renewed fighting in the northern province of Marib, whose provincial capital is the last remaining northern stronghold of the internationally-recognised Yemeni government. Despite a recent UN-brokered prisoner swap, talks to renew a truce which expired in October 2022 and Saudi-Iran normalisation, prospects for peace in the devastating conflict remain elusive.

READ: Yemen government calls for ‘caution’ over Houthipeace initiatives