Saudi Arabia Carries Out Attacks After Tens of Thousands Rally Across Yemen on War Anniv.

By Staff, Agencies

Saudi Arabia has carried out a fresh round of airstrikes and artillery attacks on Yemen’s strategic central province of Maarib and northern provinces of Hajjah and Sa’ada after tens of thousands of people rallies across Yemen to voice support for Ansarullah movement and pledge more resistance against the Saudi war.

Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television news network, citing local sources, reported that Saudi war planes launched a dozen air raids on Medghal and Sirwah districts of Maarib on Friday evening.

No reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused were quickly available.

Over the past few weeks, Maarib has been the scene of large-scale operations by Yemeni troops and allied Popular Committees fighters against Saudi-backed militants loyal to Yemen's former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Sultan al-Sama'i, a member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, said last week that the Yemeni army troops and Popular Committees fighters will liberate the neighboring provinces of Shabwah and Hadhramaut after establishing full control over Maarib, the main bastion of the occupation forces.

Saudi warplanes also struck Bani Hassan area in the Abs district of Yemen’s Saada on Friday.

Saudi forces also launched a barrage of artillery rounds at the Baqim district in the northern Yemeni province of Saada.

The Saudi attacks came after tens of thousands of people marched through Yemen's capital Sana’a and elsewhere in the country on the National Day of Resilience to show their support for Ansarullah and denounce the atrocious Saudi-led military offensives as the war entered its seventh year.

Demonstrators held up pictures of Ansarullah leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, Yemeni flags and signs that read “Death to America, Death to Israel, Victory to Islam” during Sanaa rally.

Chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council has lambasted the international community’s apathy and inaction in the face of Saudi attacks and all-out blockade.

“The world has abandoned us. The international community is witnessing what is happening in Yemen, yet it does not take any actions,” Mehdi Mohammad Hussein al-Mashat said in a televised speech broadcast from Sana’a on Friday evening.

“Resilience and steadfastness were necessary. There were no other options. The strategy prevented us from suffering more. Such popular resistance has protected us against the policies of enemies, which are based on distortion, provocation, sectarian strife as well as religious and regional divisions,” Mashat pointed out.

The head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council went on to say that the Yemeni nation’s strong resistance disclosed real motives behind the Saudi-led aggression.

“You [the Yemeni nation] established a new political paradigm, which maintains it is impossible to accept a ruler installed by foreign forces,” the top Yemeni official said.

Mashat criticized what he described as the United Nations’ double standards vis-à-vis Yemen, saying, “The world body voices concerns whenever we exercise our right of self-defense, but keeps mum once we come under attacks.”