Yemeni forces capture military base in southwestern Saudi Arabia

Yemeni forces have captured a Saudi military base in the kingdom’s border region of Najran during a retaliatory operation, killing several of the troops stationed there.

A video released by the Houthi Ansarullah movement on Wednesday shows the Yemeni forces ambush the base, using simple weaponry.

According to the al-Masirah television network, the Yemeni forces seized Saudi weapons after capturing the base.

In response, Saudi helicopters hovered over the base and bombarded the area without hitting a specific target, the report said.

There has been no exact information about the number of Saudi casualties during Riyadh’s war on Yemen, as the kingdom has sought to cover up the issue.  

On Tuesday, the Ansarullah movement released footage of the moment its forces shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet flying over the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, by a surface-to-air missile.

People stand on the rubble of houses destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen's capital city of Sana'a on June 9, 2017. (Photo by AP)

Saudi Arabia, backed by a coalition of its allies, started the war on Yemen in March 2015, hoping that with blunt force, it would be able to restore power in a matter of weeks to a former Riyadh-friendly Yemeni regime.

The Saudi regime has, however, been unable to accomplish the objectives of its military aggression some three years into the war, which has claimed around 13,600 lives.

Despite the coalition’s superior aggregate military power, Riyadh has been bogged down in the war against mostly tribal fighters with limited fighting equipment.

Saudi Arabia, already economically challenged, has decided to pay out an extra 5,000 Saudi riyals (1,333 US dollars) monthly to the troops fighting on the front lines in the war on Yemen, where reports have drawn a dark picture of the Saudi-led military personnel’s morale.