Saudi soldiers guard a military cargo plane at an airfield in the eastern province of Marib, Yemen. File photo: AP
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https://scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3030827/yemens-houthi-rebels-claim-have-captured-many-saudi-troops Middle East
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have captured ‘many’ Saudi troops in border offensive
- Houthis say launched major ground assault near the Saudi border
- Earlier this month, the Houthis claimed an attack on major Saudi oil facilities
Houthi followers in Sanaa, Yemen. File photo: Reuters
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they captured many Saudi soldiers and officers in a large operation near the border between the two countries, shortly after the kingdom agreed to a limited ceasefire with the Iranian-backed group.
If true, the escalation will likely deal a blow to efforts to end a war that’s killed thousands and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
Saudi Arabia mobilised a military coalition in 2015 to back Yemen’s internationally-recognised government against the Shiite rebels.
The Houthis, in a statement carried by the Saba news agency on Saturday, said they destroyed three enemy brigades after “just 72 hours of the operation”.
Thousands of people have been taken prisoners, including “many Saudi commanders, officers and soldiers”.
“Operation ‘Victory from God’ is the largest military one since the brutal aggression began. The enemy suffered heavy losses … and wide swathes of territory were liberated in only a few days,” Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam tweeted.
There has been no comment so far from the Saudi-led coalition.
The announcement comes almost two weeks after the Houthis took credit for the devastating attack on key Saudi Aramco oil facilities that briefly halved the country’s output and rattled global markets this month.
The US and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the attack, which they said wasn’t launched from Yemen.
Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Houthi-controlled forces, said those captured would be paraded on the group’s TV network, the BBC reported.
Last week, the Houthis announced a unilateral halt to the hundreds of drone and missile attacks that have targeted OPEC’s largest producer in recent years.
An official with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government said Friday that the kingdom has agreed to a ceasefire in several areas of Yemen including the capital Sanaa.
The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis, who control Sanaa and most big urban centres, deny being puppets of Tehran and say they are fighting a corrupt system.
Bloomberg, Reuters