The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are using civilian houses to launch anti-aircraft attacks against Saudi planes, said Saudi Gen. Ahmed bin Hasan Asiri, who said:
They’ve put anti-aircraft batteries over buildings, forcing us to bomb these areas, resulting in collateral damage.
Iran has denied it is backing the Houthis, a claim no one believes, and the use of civilian shields is a classic tactic used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist organizations.
Saudi Arabian warplanes bombed Houthi positions in Yemen for the fourth consecutive day Sunday while the Iranian-backed forces approached the Saudi border and threatened to carry out suicide bombings.
Pre-dawn strikes Sunday targeted an arms depot in the capital of Sanaa and a military airbase near the international airport.
Asiri announced that Saudi planes have destroyed most of the Houthis’ ground-to-ground ballistic missiles launching pads, but he added, “We cannot rule out that the Houthi militias resorted to keeping in stores a big amount of them.”
The aerial attack also is trying to keep the Houthi rebels from mobilizing near the Saudi border. Senior Houthi official Abdel Mon’em Al-Qurashi threatened that the rebels would destroy the Saudi regime for its “aggressive” policies.
“If Saudi Arabia continues its aggressions against the oppressed Yemeni people, [Houthi] fighters will pave the way for the Saudi regime’s destruction by conducting martyrdom-seeking operations inside Saudi Arabia in the coming hours,” Quraishi told Fars News Agency.