Yemeni combat drone targets Saudi mercenaries’ command center in Aden

Yemeni army soldiers, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have launched an airstrike against a command center of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, in the country’s southern province of Aden.

A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yemeni soldiers and their allies attacked the military site in the al-Burayqah district of the province on Thursday, using a domestically-designed and -manufactured Qasef K2 (Striker K2) combat drone.

Later in the day, Yemeni troopers and fighters from Popular Committees carried out an ambush against vehicles carrying Saudi-paid militiamen on the outskirts of al-Sadis area in Saudi Arabia's southern border region of Najran, killing or injuring those on board.

An unnamed Yemeni military official also said Yemeni troops and their allies had managed to purge a number of Saudi mercenaries’ positions east of al-Nar Mountain in the kingdom’s Jizan region.

The official noted that several Saudi-sponsored militiamen were killed or wounded in the process.

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 Hadi back to power and crushing Houthi Ansarullah movement.

According to a December 2018 report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN said in a report in December 2018 that over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.