SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Saudi-led coalition engaged in Yemen dismissed as “fabricated” video footage issued by the Houthi movement on Saturday purportedly showing an incursion by its fighters into a Saudi Arabian border area on the frontlines.
Houthi-run Al Masirah television cited a military source as saying more than 80 Saudi soldiers and Sudanese “mercenaries” were killed or injured, while tens were captured in the operation near Al Khoubah in the southern Saudi region of Jazan.
“Claims by the Houthi militia about executing a military operation on the Jazan border are media fabrications,” Saudi state television cited coalition spokesman Brigadier General Turki al-Malki as saying.
Malki said the Houthis’ “imaginary victories” aimed to cover up big military losses suffered by the group in Yemen’s Marib and al-Jawf regions.
The war, which in March entered its seventh year, has been in a military stalemate for years with the Iran-aligned Houthis holding most of northern Yemen.
The United Nations and the United States are pressing for a ceasefire needed to end the conflict, widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Some of the video footage on Al Masirah’s Telegram account, the authenticity of which could not be independently verified by Reuters, showed men in military uniform coming under fire as they fled down a rocky mountain slope.
Sudanese troops have been deployed as part of the Saudi-led military alliance that intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital Sanaa.
(Esta Media Network/Reuters)
