Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri, a Saudi military spokesperson, said on Wednesday that the Saudi troops have pushed their way into the northern Yemeni regions which overlook the southwestern Saudi province of Jizan. Assiri further noted that the Saudi soldiers have taken some areas under their control. Expounding on the reason for the Saudi raids, the spokesman added that Yemen's Ansarullah fighters and their allied army forces have launched many attacks on Saudi Arabia recently, and that some of the fighters have tried to enter the country. Yemeni forces have been pounding the Saudi province with artillery and missile attacks. Assiri described the raid as a temporary military strategy that does not aim to take Yemeni territory. On Wednesday, Yemen's Ansarullah fighters and their allied army units launched a Scud missile at the Hamiyeh power plant in Jizan, killing the soldiers guarding the facility. The Yemeni army, backed by Popular Committees, also launched 40 rockets across the border into southern Saudi Arabia, hitting an army depot in the Beryanin base in the province of Najran. Riyadh's latest airstrikes hit the Yemeni provinces of Jawf, Hajjah, Sana'a, Sa'ada and Ma'rib on Wednesday, killing at least 9 people, including one child. At least ten people were also injured. Saudi Arabia began its military operations against Yemen on March 26 in a bid to restore power to president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and to weaken the Houthi Ansarullah movement. Over 4,300 people have been killed in the war, the World Health Organization said on August 11. Local Yemeni sources, however, say the fatality figure is much higher.
