At least 30 civilians, including women and children, lost their lives after Saudi jets conducted eight aerial assaults on Jawf’s al-Maslub district, Al-Masirah TV channel reported.

The strikes, it added, targeted people who had gathered near the wreckage of a Saudi jet that had been shot down by Yemeni forces on Friday evening.

Yemeni air defense units managed to target and shoot down a Saudi fighter jet of Tornado type in the skies of Jawf in retaliation for the Riyadh regime’s ongoing aggression against the Arab country.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past nearly five years.

The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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Speaking recently at US-based think tank Atlantic Council in Washington, Hamdok stressed the war in Yemen has no military solution and peace could be achieved only through political means, Anadolu Agency reported.

Sudan forces have been one of the main contributors to the so-called Saudi coalition against Yemen, formed in 2015 in a bid to install a pro-Saudi government in Sana’a and crush Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.

According to reports, up to 40,000 Sudanese troops were deployed in the country during the peak of the conflict in 2016-2017.

Late October, however, Sudanese officials said the country had withdrawn thousands of troops from Yemen, with only a “few thousand” remaining.

Hamdok, who is leading the country’s transitional government in a power-sharing pact with the military, further stated that he will be “absolutely” able to withdraw the remaining troops from Yemen.

The new prime minister said his government had “inherited” the deployment in Yemen from Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir who was ousted following a popular uprising against his rule in April.

Hamdok pledged to “address” the country’s involvement in the Saudi-led war “in the near future” without further elaborating on the matter.

While Sudanese officials have abstained from publishing official casualty numbers in Yemen, Yemen’s armed forces have said a total 4,253 Sudanese troops have been killed in the conflict.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives ever since.

The United Nations says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

An estimated two million children in Yemen are currently suffering from acute malnutrition, including 360,000 under five years old, according to recent UNICEF reports.

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In an interview with Al Mayadeen TV, the political adviser in Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, Mohamed Abdul Elah Hajar, stressed that the Ansarullah movement favors stability and peace in Yemen, and pursues efforts to end the Saudi aggression, remove the blockade imposed on the country, reopen the Sana’a airport, and make sure government employees receive their salaries.

Pointing to Saudi Arabia’s attempts to make contact with Ansarullah Spokesman Mohammad Abdulsalam, Hajar said Riyadh has been liaising with the Ansarullah movement since the beginning of the talks related to Yemen peace proposal via its envoy.

He also noted that Ansarullah’s peace initiative has been welcomed by the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths and by several states, describing peace as the preferred option that must be pursued to relieve the pains of Yemeni people and end the war.

Saudi Arabia perceives major internal and foreign threats in peace, and is afraid that taking steps for peace would mark a defeat for the kingdom, Hajar added.

The official also made it clear that Ansarullah will be prepared for defense if the peace offer is rejected.

In September, President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat said the Houthi forces would end all attacks on Saudi Arabia provided that the kingdom and its allies ended their attacks on Yemen.

He also hoped that “the gesture would be answered by a stronger gesture” from the Saudis.

The Houthi proposal came a week after Yemeni strikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil installations, which knocked out half of the kingdom’s production.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

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On Tuesday, forces loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, and militants backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a deal, Riyadh agreement, to end their months-long infighting.

“Signing such documents won’t resolve Yemeni people’s problems and in fact all it does is give a boost to the occupation of southern Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its allies directly or through their proxy forces,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Wednesday.

Reiterating Iran’s position about forming a unity government through dialogue, Mousavi underlined the need to respect Yemen’s sovereignty, saying the people of Yemen “won’t let their country’s southern parts fell into the hands of their enemies.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said after the “Riyadh Agreement” that it facilitated a crucial step towards reaching a political solution to end the four-year war against the impoverished country.

“This agreement will open a new period of stability in Yemen. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia stands with you,” the young prince said at the signing ceremony.

“It’s a joyful day in Saudi as the two sides come together,” he added.

The two militant groups are allied in their fight against Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Mousavi questioned the kingdom’s real incentive and advised bin Salman to accept Yemen’s peace offer if he really wanted to end the Riyadh regime’s deadly war against Yemen.

“If they are serious in their claims to resolve Yemen’s problem, instead of deciding on behalf of groups that have no power of their own, they should accept the peace offer put forward by [head of Yemen’s Houthi-run Supreme Political Council] Mahdi Mashat,” he said.

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Eyebrows raised when a swarm of drones struck facilities at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry last month.

The attack was regarded highly sophisticated since it circumvented a patchwork of air defense systems inside the oil kingdom.

The attacks were claimed by a coalition of Yemeni fighters, mainly made up of Ansarullah and more than half of the former Yemeni Army.

Saudi Arabia and its western backers – the US, UK, France, and Germany – have accused Iran of perpetrating the strike, but no compelling evidence proving the claim has yet been publicized.

Last week, the Yemeni forces unveiled a separate set of military operations against Saudi Arabia that proved even more surprising for the global audience.

The Yemeni forces broadcast footage they said was of an assault against Saudi Arabia in August that killed or wounded 500 soldiers with near 2,700 soldiers surrendering.

The assault targeted the southern region of Najran, with videos aired showing armored vehicles hit by blasts, along with large piles of weapons and surrendering soldiers.

Saudi Arabia has described Ansarullah’s claims as part of a “misleading media campaign”. However, it has not directly disconfirmed the Yemeni assertions.

 Turning point in conflict?

The attacks showed the Yemeni fighters are capable of engaging in major cross-border offensives against Saudi Arabia, threatening the status-quo of the five-year-old war in Yemen.

What was a small religious movement emerged in Yemen’s north in the 1980s, is now an actor of regional importance.

Ansarullah fought six unsuccessful insurgencies against the Saudi-backed government of Yemen in the 2000s.

Following the Arab uprisings in early 2010s, the movement drew support from a wide array of local groups, tribesmen and military officers who shared a resentment of feeling marginalized at the hands of a corrupt and paralyzed government.

The Saudi invasion and the economic blockade of the poorest Arab country has pushed many more to join the ranks of anti-Saudi forces.

Currently, a hybrid range of forces make up the military element of Ansarullah, with some 60 percent of the Yemeni army previously loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has allied with the group.

Thanks to the alliance, the group has become equipped with Yemeni Army’s weapons systems ranging from tanks and technical vehicles to anti-tank guided missiles and long-range ballistic missiles.

 Massive transformation

They have come a long way since the early months of the war.

The Houthis have significantly increased their cross-border strikes since December 2017, launching many assaults on military and economic installations in Saudi Arabia.

Missiles have been time and again fired into Saudi cities, reaching as far as the capital Riyadh, and since January 2018 they’ve attacked using drones.

During a presser late last month, Saudi military spokesman Turki al-Maliki claimed that Saudi Arabia had been targeted with 232 ballistic missiles and 258 drones in September.

The increase in the number of attacks is in a large part due to the Houthis’ growing capabilities to manufacture drones and missiles.

During the years, their technology has become much more sophisticated and far more lethal.

 Attacks bode well for Yemen

The attacks showed the ragtag Ansarullah has transformed from a small opposition movement into a battle-hardened military force capable of hitting Saudi Arabia where it hurts the most.

Saudi Arabia and its western allies have long accused Iran of directing, arming and funding the movement. But such claims fly in the face of realities.

Despite the imbalance of wealth and weapons, the Yemenis have stalemated the US-backed forces of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars in defense systems from the US, but those weapons have failed to shield the kingdom from incoming attacks.

The UAE seems to have realized that the war in Yemen is a hopeless case. That’s why it announced recently it would pull out of the Yemen conflict, leaving the Saudis increasingly isolated.

The assaults on the Saudi oil facilities and the major ground offensive have spurred efforts to end a conflict long overdue for resolution.

The war has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, with thousands of civilians dying from preventable causes, including malnutrition, disease, and poor health.

Let’s hope Saudi Arabia will come to its senses and stop shooting itself in the leg.

Caption: A screengrab from footage via Yemen-based Al Masirah TV purportedly shows soldiers surrendering to anti-Saudi forces near the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border.

Highlight: The ragtag Ansarullah has transformed from a small opposition movement to a battle-hardened military force threatening the status-quo of the five-year-old war in Yemen.

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