Losing in Yemen: Saudi Helicopter Downed in by Resistance Fighters in Hudaydah Province

21st Century Wire says…

Saudi Arabia’s undeclared war of aggression against its neighbour Yemen in now entering its third year. Instead of getting out, the Saudis are now doubling down. 

Back in January, Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, accused Saudi Arabia of launching its war against its southern neighbour in order to ‘prove’ its worthiness to United States – showing how it could take on a region conflict. Most knowledgable analysts now agree that Saudi’s adventurism in Yemen has been an unmitigated failure. As loses are mounting, the Kingdom is now relying on mercenaries to do there fighting, and US air support to conduct its air strikes against Yemen.

In March 2015, Saudi began bombing Yemen, supposedly to reinstate what Riyadh and Washington claimed was the “legitimate government” of Yemen. However, critics are quick to point out that Yemen’s former President Mansour Hadi (backed by the US and Saudi) had actually over-stayed his term in office. Not only that, but he resigned – not once, but twice. 21 WIRE Associate Editor Vanessa Beeley explained the folly of Washington and Saudi’s bogus claims of Hadi’s legitimacy:

“Fugitive president Hadi was NOT deposed..he resigned, twice and his GCC mandate had expired one year previously in February 2014 before being extended to Feb 2015 without agreement from the Yemeni people.

The UN is also complicit in this genocidal war against Yemen. Resolution 2216 adopted by the UNSC in April 2015 put an embargo on 5 named Yemeni protagonists. Since then it has cynically been employed to blockade and starve 27 million Yemenis. Despite documented arguments against the legitimacy of Hadi, the basis for Res 2216, the UN has failed to respond and lift the comprehensive land, sea and air blockade, thus exacerbating the suffering and collective punishment of the Yemeni people.”

This war could be the undoing of the current regime in Saudi Arabia…

Press TV

Yemeni army soldiers and fighters from Popular Committees have shot down an Apache helicopter operated by Saudi Arabia in the western province of Hudaydah, a report says.

The chopper was brought down in Hudaydah’s Bayt al-Faqih district on Thursday, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

On January 25, the Yemeni forces shot down another Apache helicopter belonging to the so-called Saudi-led coalition in Dhubab neighborhood of Yemen’s Ta’izz province.

Ten Saudi soldiers slain

Separately on Thursday, al-Masirah reported that a Saudi trooper had been killed in the al-Dukhan military base in the kingdom’s southwestern Jizan region.

Nine other Saudi soldiers lost their lives in several places across Saudi Arabia’s southern region, including Jizan’s al-Dafinah village.

According to later reports, one of the slain soldiers came form the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a statement carried by the UAE state news agency, WAM, the Emirati armed forces identified the soldier as Zakariya Suleiman al-Zaabi.

Some 85 Emirati soldiers have been killed since the beginning of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen two years ago.

Additionally on Thursday, Yemeni fighters managed to thwart an attack by Saudi mercenaries on a border crossing near Saudi Arabia’s southern region of Najran and inflicted heavy losses on them.

Yemeni sources said a number of Saudi mercenaries were killed and injured in Najran’s al-Khazra’ crossing following a mine explosion.

Elsewhere, Saudi mercenaries shot dead a Yemeni woman in the town of Ma’afir in Yemen’s Ta’izz province.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a deadly military campaign against Yemen since March 2015. The kingdom has also imposed an aerial and naval blockade on its southern neighbor.

Britain and the US have provided huge amounts of arms and military training to the Saudi forces.

The war by Saudi Arabia, which  seeks to restore Yemen’s former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, to power, has killed over 12,000 Yemenis, according to recent tallies…

21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.