The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces says army troopers and allied fighters from Popular Committees have launched a string of airstrikes against military aircraft hangars in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern region of Asir, using a squadron of domestically-manufactured Qasef-2K (Striker-2K) combat drones.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the unmanned aerial vehicles struck with great precision the designated targets in King Khalid Air Base, which lies 884 kilometers south of the capital Riyadh, early on Thursday.
Saree added that arms depots, loading facilities and other strategic structures were destroyed during the operation as well.
The senior Yemeni official then warned Saudi Arabia against more painful days to come, stressing retaliatory attacks will continue as long as the Riyadh regime continues its military aggression, siege and relentless raids against the war-torn Arab country.
On July 23, Yemeni soldiers and their allies launched drone attacks against the same Saudi air base, hitting radars and other sensitive military positions there.
Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported that Yemeni army soldiers and allied fighters from Popular Committees had used Qasef-K2 combat drones to accurately hit radar and military sites at King Khalid Air Base.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.
The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.