Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, has taken control of more islands in the Red Sea and launched another significant missile and drone attack on Saudi Arabia on Monday, as the war in Yemen continues to rage after it was reignited by Saudi airstrikes on the Sanaa International Airport on July 13.
Yemeni sources told The Associated Press that Ansar Allah took control of the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish, which are 100 miles north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The report noted that the islands are also only 20 miles from the US military base in Djibouti.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Ansar Allah-led Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF), announced on Monday morning that the YAF launched “a large-scale, qualitative military operation targeting military facilities and infrastructure, including aircraft hangars, radar installations, runways, ammunition depots, and other targets at King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait,” located in southwest Saudi Arabia.
Saree said the attack was launched in response to Saudi Arabia “launching more than 300 airstrikes in the past five days” using US-made F-15 fighter jets and European-made Typhoon fighter jets. Later in the day, Saree said that Saudi Arabia had launched dozens more airstrikes.
“The criminal Saudi warplanes launched 54 airstrikes in the past 24 hours using F-15 and Typhoon aircraft that took off from enemy Saudi bases in Khamis Mushait and Taif, targeting the governorates of Taiz, Lahj, Al-Jawf, Ma’rib, and Hajjah.
This brutal aggression will not go unanswered and unpunished, God willing,” he wrote on Telegram.
Yemeni media reported that at least two civilians were killed by Saudi airstrikes that hit a bridge in the southwestern Taiz province. Dr. Omar Al-Bukheiti, spokesman for the Ansar Allah-led Yemeni government, denounced the attack as a “crime” and said that it came as the “blood had not yet dried” from the September 7 strike on a prison in al-Jawf, Yemen, which killed at least 23 civilians, including inmates and a child, according to Yemeni officials.
Saree previously said that the strike on the prison was carried out by a US-made F-15, and Yemen’s Mine Action Center also reported that its experts documented bomb fragments at the site and determined that the strike was carried out with a 2,000-pound US-made satellite-guided GBU-31 JDAM bomb.
While the US has reportedly declined a Saudi request to launch direct airstrikes in Yemen, it is deeply involved in the war, as around 200 US military personnel are in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and targeting assistance. The Saudi air force is also very reliant on US maintenance support and frequently uses US-made munitions.
