Yemeni official says defining moment of Ma’rib battle close

Muhammed al-Bukhaiti told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen news network on Wednesday that “the defining hours are close in Ma’rib.”

Al-Bukhaiti noted that the Yemeni forces are under popular pressure to liberate the province from the Saudi-backed militants.

Earlier on Wednesday, field sources told al-Mayadeen that the Yemeni army and allied fighters from Popular Committees took control of al-Balaq al-Sharqiyah mountain range, which is located near Ma’rib City.

According to the sources, al-Balaq al-Sharqiyah is “the last height to defend Ma’rib City from the southeastern side.”

Noting that many Saudi-backed militants have fled the battle fronts, the sources noted “it is only a matter of days until the Yemeni army and Popular Committees will fully liberate Ma’rib City.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, al-Bukhaiti stated that the defeat of the Saudi-backed forces in Ma’rib “means their defeat on the remaining fronts,” describing the imminent liberation of the province as “the worst scenario” for the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen.

According to the official, the liberation of Ma’rib province would pave the way for an end to the siege imposed on Yemen, noting that the member countries of the Saudi-led coalition can no longer impose their blockade on Yemen and launch attacks on the impoverished country from a safe location.

Ma’rib, which is located right in the middle of a whole host of other Yemeni provinces, has turned into a focus of the Yemeni army’s liberation operations since last year.

The province’s recapture, towards which many advancements have been made so far, is expected to pave the way for further military victories for Yemen’s armed forces.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and its regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah movement.

The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.

Despite Saudi Arabia’s heavily-armed and continued bombardment of the impoverished country, Yemeni armed forces and the Popular Committees have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.

Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah resistance movement has also praised the army’s increasing gains in the campaign of defense against the Saudi-led coalition of invaders, stating Riyadh and its allies are left with no choice but to admit their failure and end the war.

In a tweet on Wednesday night, the movement’s spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam wrote that the capabilities of the Yemeni armed forces, their air defense units in particular, are constantly evolving in the face of the Saudi-led aggression.

He hailed the recent downing of a US-made ScanEagle spy drone and a Chinese-made CH-4 combat drone as evidence confirming the progress of Yemen’s air defense units.

“The enemy needs to realize that it has no choice but to take the initiative to announce a halt to the aggression and lift the siege,” Abdul-Salam added.

The Yemeni armed forces regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the bloody war.