On the night of 20 December, the Saudi-led coalition launched several airstrikes against Sanaa International Airport in the Yemeni capital. According to a UN Development Program (UNDP) report issued last month, the war will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of this year.
Videos shared across social media allegedly show the moment Saudi warplanes bombed the airport.
ألسنة النيران تصاعدت في السماء..
شاهد: قصف عنيف لمقاتلات التحالف على مواقع #ميليشيا الحوثي بمطار #صنعاءhttps://t.co/nxIeY7qrL6#التحالف #التحالف_العربي #صنعاء_الان pic.twitter.com/VpPvlha6tH— صحيفة المناطق السعودية (@AlMnatiq) December 20, 2021
Ahead of the bombardment, the coalition called on workers of international and humanitarian organizations in the airport to immediately evacuate.
A statement released soon after the attack by the Saudi-led coalition spokesman, Brigadier General Turki al-Malki, reads: “The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition has carried out this evening, Monday (20 December 2021), a limited military operation against legitimate military targets in Sanaa Airport after they were used for military purposes by [Yemen’s Ansarallah movement.]”
The strikes hit six sites, including places allegedly used for launching attacks by drones, training drone personnel, housing trainers and trainees, and storing drones.
“The operation comes in response to threats and the use of the airport’s facilities to launch cross-border attacks,” the Saudi statement goes on to add.
In response to this latest aggression by Riyadh, Ansarallah’s Supreme Political Council warned that “the continued bombing of the capital and targeting of Sanaa International Airport will not go unpunished.”
Monday’s attack came less than 24 hours after the Yemeni Armed Forces retaliated against the ongoing Saudi aggressions on Sanaa by targeting the cities of Jizan and Khamis Mushait in southwest Saudi Arabia.
Over recent weeks, the Yemeni Armed Forces has successfully launched several airstrikes against military positions deep inside the kingdom. On 15 December, ballistic missiles launched from Yemen successfully destroyed several military targets at King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait and other vital Saudi targets in Jizan province.
Yemeni ground forces have also been making significant advances on the region bordering Jizan province, taking control of strategic positions and pushing back against Saudi-backed mercenaries.
In addition, the Yemeni Armed Forces and allied Popular Committees are reportedly mere “days away” from liberating central Marib province. Experts agree that the liberation of Marib could prove to be a major turning point in the six-year war.
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and its closest allies, mainly the UAE, have been waging a brutal war in the Arab world’s poorest nation after the Ansarallah movement ousted the western-friendly government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
In an unexpected move, the Ansarallah forces were able to retaliate within ten minutes.
Reports said that the Yemeni Armed Forces also launched missiles and drones from inside the southern parts of the Saudi territory, as well from as the city of Marib.
A Yemeni correspondent close to the Ansarallah said that six raids by the Saudi-led coalition targeted a citizen-owned maintenance workshop located in the middle of a residential neighborhood near the Saudi German Hospital in the Bani al-Harith district.
The seven-year war in Yemen is reaching its end, as Ansarallah forces gain control over more parts of Yemen every day.
Iran’s Arabic state TV news channel Al-Alam quoted Saudi sources as saying that the cities of Jizan and Khamis Mushait in Saudi Arabia were targeted with missiles.
The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced the destruction of several military targets in southern Saudi Arabia.
“The missile force was able to destroy airbases at King Khalid base in Khamis Mushait and vital targets in Jizan with five ballistic missiles. The hits were accurate. This targeting comes in response to the escalation of air strikes and the crimes committed against our dear people,” Saree announced via Twitter.
He added that the Yemeni Armed Forces are ready for “larger and broader operations” for as long as the aggression and siege on Yemen continue.
The Yemeni army and allied fighters from the Popular Committees have also achieved new victories against the Saudi-led coalition, seizing critical sites along the Saudi border in the northeastern province of Al-Jawf.
Yemeni forces gained control of a number of locations in the Qashan mountains and Salbah Valley in Al-Jawf’s Khabb wal Shaaf district on the border with Saudi Arabia’s Najran region, according to Al Mayadeen.
