By Staff, Agencies

The Yemeni army has launched a large-scale military operation inside Saudi Arabia, hitting the Arab kingdom’s Khaled airbase and Aramco refinery, in retaliation for a years-long brutal war by the Saudi-led coalition against impoverished Yemen.

In a statement carried by Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network on Saturday, spokesman of Yemen’s Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced the successful implementation of the “Eighth Deterrence Balance Operation” by bombing a number of military and vital targets inside Saudi Arabia, using 14 domestically-developed combat drones.

He said four Sammad-3 [Invincible-3] drones bombed the King Khaled airbase near capital Riyadh, adding that four Sammad-2 [Invincible-2] drones also bombed military targets at King Abdullah International Airport in Jeddah and Aramco Jeddah refineries.

Separately, military targets at Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia's southwestern province of Asir were bombarded by Sammad-3 drone and five Qasef-2K [Striker-2K] drones bombed various military targets in Abha, Jizan and Najran provinces.

Yemen’s “armed forces affirm their ability to carry out more offensive operations against Saudi and Emirati enemies within the framework of the legitimate defense of Yemeni nation and homeland,” General Saree further said.

He also stressed that the Yemeni “armed forces, with the help of God Almighty, will face escalation with escalation until the aggression stops and the siege is lifted.”

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies – including the United Arab Emirates [UAE] – launched the brutal war on Yemen in March 2015. The campaign was launched to eliminate popular Ansarullah movement and reinstall Yemen’s Riyadh-backed former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Ansarullah has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.

The war has also been carried out in collaboration with a number of Riyadh’s allied states and with arms and logistics support from the United States and several Western countries.

The brutal aggression, which is accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, but it has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people.

The UN says more than 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger. The world body also refers to the situation in Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The war has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories.

Saudi Arabia is being targeted by the Yemeni army and its allied popular forces continuously, with the Sanaa government saying that it will keep hitting targets deep inside the Arab kingdom as long as the war and siege continue.