The Yemeni armed forces say they have struck Saudi military equipment flown by cargo aircraft into Riyan airport in the port city of Mukalla, warning Riyadh against using civilian facilities for military purposes.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Yemeni armed forces, announced the operation in a brief statement on Wednesday, saying the consignments had been transported to the airport aboard Saudi military cargo aircraft.
“The criminal Saudi enemy is using Riyan Airport to transport weapons and military equipment aimed at the massacre of Yemeni people,” Saree stated.
He warned that Riyadh is making use of Yemeni civilian facilities in order to advance its military agendas.
In a separate statement, Saree also dismissed the Saudi-led coalition’s allegation that Yemeni Armed Forces had launched a series of unmanned aerial vehicles towards the regions of Medina and the Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia.
He censured the allegations as “baseless and unsubstantiated,” emphasizing that they are made to tarnish the image of Yemen and its Armed Forces.
“Yemeni forces conducted no military operation against the Saudi territory on Wednesday,” Saree pointed out.
Early on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Sana’a-based Yemeni government asserted they had intercepted and destroyed five drones launched toward Saudi Arabia.
Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki claimed on the social media platform X that the coalition detected and shot down four drones in the regions of Medina and the Eastern Province.
In a separate announcement later, Maliki alleged that the alliance intercepted and destroyed a drone launched toward the Eastern Province. No casualties or damage have been reported so far.
The latest escalation began after Saudi Arabia bombed Sanaa’s international airport in July. The Yemeni armed forces responded by enforcing a “blockade for blockade” policy and declaring an embargo on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
The Yemeni military has announced several successful naval operations targeting ships linked to Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, enforcing the blockade and impacting Riyadh's energy exports.
Yemeni forces have also launched retaliatory attacks on targets deep inside Saudi Arabia and made a rapid advance across Yemen’s coastal plain over the past month, tightening their grip on the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The war traces back to March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and a US-backed coalition launched a sweeping military campaign and blockade aimed at reinstalling a puppet regime in Sana'a.
Despite years of bombardment and the deployment of advanced Western weaponry, the Saudi coalition has failed to achieve its stated objectives.
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