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ASIR, YEMEN — In a new development in the Saudi-led coalition’s three-year-old war on Yemen, Yemen’s armed forces used a drone for the first time to target the coalition’s headquarters in Camp Boraiqa, Aden. A military source confirmed to MintPress that the strikes caused multiple casualties, killing troops from the UAE, including military officers.

Aden-based Aden Tomorrow, a news organization close to the Saudi-led coalition, reported that coalition defenses downed “Houthi drones” after they bombed the coalition’s headquarters in Camp Boraiqa, reporting “massive explosions” followed by heavy gunfire.

A spokesperson for Yemen’s Army told MintPress, “there is no safe place for coalition leaders today; we will target their movements, gatherings, and centers in southern Yemen.”

Earlier, the Yemen Army`s war media released a  two-minute video of the army’s reconnaissance operations on Yemen`s western coasts. The scenes showed a surveillance aircraft as it detected positions and gatherings of the Saudi-led military coalition forces on Yemen`s west coast. The next scene showed the target as it was bombarded by several shells, inflicting damage and casualties on the Saudi-led forces.

Brig. Gen. Abdullah al-Jafri, a spokesperson for the Yemeni Air Force and Air Defense, told local media that using drones will be the winning card of the Yemeni army fighting Saudi-led forces on the west coast. “The invading enemy was unable to intercept drones, which cost the Yemeni army only $1000 each, at most, to produce,” he added. Jafri further said that the Yemeni army has so far carried out nearly all shelling and missile attacks against Saudi-led coalition positions through the precise target coordinates it received from its reconnaissance drones.

The effectiveness of ballistic missile strikes

Yemen’s Armed Forces are also working to bolster their ballistic missile capabilities. Yemen’s Missile Force unveiled an underground missile launch platform for the short-range Badr-1 ballistic missile, saying in a recent statement that “the platform comes within the framework of developing the missile capabilities and raising their effectiveness in the field.”

Yemen’s Army spokesman Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman told MintPress:

The missile infrastructure and underground platform will witness more stages of development and strength in the coming period. The U.S.-Saudi coalition is not able to target ballistic missile platforms.”

Yemen’s Missile Force echoed those sentiments, adding “the U.S.-Saudi coalition cannot target ballistic missile platforms, they only target civilians.”

The underground platform where the short-range domestically-manufactured Badr-1 ballistic missile was fired from, later striking the King Faisal military base in Khamis Mushait, Asir, July 3, 2018.

On Tuesday, Yemeni forces fired a short-range, domestically-manufactured Badr-1 ballistic missile from an underground platform at King Faisal military base in Khamis Mushait, a city in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern region of Asir. A military source told MintPress that was not the first time that platform has been used.

According to a high-ranking military official’s statement to MintPress:

Rocket attacks will escalate in coming months and royal palaces inside Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai will be targeted.”

He called on foreigners and companies to leave the cities for their own safety.

In another development, a source in Yemen’s Armed Forces told MintPress that the Yemeni Army recently captured a number of foreign mercenaries, including American national of Yemeni descent Mujahid Ali Naji al-Qardai. Al-Qardai previously served as the head of the Yemeni community in New York.  He was captured during violent clashes in the battle of Ganiah near Sana’a.

On June 18, 2018 Yemen’s Navy, loyal to the Houthi government, captured a French naval vessel, the M/Y Jehol ll, laden with foreign fighters, while it was engaged in a military landing operation off the coast of Hodeida.

The U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition has launched over 16,000 airstrikes on Yemen, killing civilians and targeting hospitals, schools, markets, and camps for the internally displaced. Yemen’s military has responded by firing salvos of missiles and drones at Saudi-led coalition military.

Top Photo | The domestically manufactured Yemeni Qasef-1 UAV.

Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.

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