Saudi airstrikes destroy telecommunications facility in Yemeni capital

Saudi warplanes have destroyed the building that housed the Yemen International Telecommunications Co (TeleYemen) in the capital Sana’a less than three weeks after the internet and international telecommunications were cut off across the war-wracked Arab country due to similar air raids.

Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported that the Saudi fighter jets launched two airstrikes against the building that lies in al-Thawra district at 2:00 am local time on Monday, completely destroying it, and inflicting heavy damage on the nearby building.

The attack comes as the Saudi-led coalition waging war against Yemen frequently targets the country’s infrastructure.

Late in January, Saudi warplanes targeted a telecommunications building in Hudaydah City, causing the cutoff of internet and international telecommunications in Yemen for several days.

Yemen’s Supreme Political Council has stressed the targeting of telecommunications networks aimed to “commit more crimes away from the media.”

‘Aggressors have no option but to incline towards peace’

Mohammed Abdulsalam, chief negotiator of Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement, stated that peace is now the only option for the member countries of the Saudi-led coalition after years-long aggression has failed to reach its goals.

“The [member] countries of aggression continue their wrong and trying what they have failed in for years, including an escalation here and there, with the continuation of the suffocating siege, thinking that it will achieve a gain, and it’s what they won’t reach, God willing,” Abdulsalam tweeted.

“On the threshold of the eighth year, they should realize that there is no choice but to incline towards peace.”

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies –  including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015.

The war was launched to eliminate Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement and reinstall former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The war, accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, but has martyred hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people. The UN refers to the situation in Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories.

The Yemeni forces have in recent months gone from strength to strength against the Saudi-led invaders and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in Yemen.