SANAA, YEMEN — Yemen’s navy targeted a Saudi warship off Jizan on Saudi Arabia’s southwestern coast on Saturday, in retaliation for Saudi-led coalition attack of Yemeni fishing boats the day before. The Saudi strikes on the fishing boats killed multiple fishermen near the island of Uqban, about 36 kilometers off the coast of the city of Hodeida.
A military source in the Yemeni Navy said the naval forces of the Saudi-led coalition evacuated the wounded from the Saudi barge to hospitals in Jizan. A medical source in Jizan, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to MintPress that one of Jizan`s hospitals received many wounded Saudi seamen. No comments have been issued by the Saudi-led coalition thus far.
“Our targeting of the Saudi barge comes in response to the targeting of Yemeni fishermen,” Colonel Aziz Rashid, a Yemeni army spokesman said of the incident, adding “the Yemen Navy Force is undergoing technical development and we will continue our operations both in regional waters and in Saudi waters.”
This is the second military operation carried out in Saudi territorial waters. On August 24, the Yemeni Navy carried out a special operation against a Saudi naval base located on Saudi land for the first time. Both strikes occurred after Mohammed Ali al Houthi, head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee (SRC), announced the resumption of retaliatory attacks against Saudi-led coalition forces in the Red Sea on August 16, 2018.
The new attack comes one month after the Saudi military battleship Dammam was hit by Yemeni forces with a domestically-manufactured missile, dubbed the Mandab, which was first unveiled on November 7, 2017.
In Friday’s attack, the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition bombed four fishing boats, killing five fishermen, and wounding four. 16 are still missing according to Yemen`s Marine Fisheries department.
Lying in torn, blood-stained clothing on a bed in Hodeida Hospital’s emergency room, 22-year-old Atta recounted to MintPress the events that landed him there:
We were on the island of Uqban; on our boat were nine of my colleagues; in the afternoon apache [copters] attacked us; later, F-16s bombed another boat. Most of my colleagues are missing; I am the only survivor.”
Yemen’s Marine Fisheries said in a press conference that the Saudi-led coalition prevents fishermen from fishing in the Yemeni`s territorial waters and detains them and confiscates their boats:
Saudi-led Coalition warships are throwing remnants in Yemen’s territorial waters; they also allow foreign fishing vessels to fish illegally in our territorial waters and cause environmental damage that can not be compensated until decades later.”
On August 21, more than 15 Yemeni fishermen lost their lives and several others sustained injuries in Hodeida, western Yemen when Saudi airstrikes with U.S.-provided munitions targeted fishing boats off of the Sawabi Islands and Kadahah.
Since 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition began its military campaign against Yemen, 217 fishermen have been killed, 204 wounded, and four others missing, according to the General Authority for Marine Fisheries.
The Ministry added that coalition attacks have destroyed 205 fishing boats in 70 operations launched during the past three years inflicting at least $5.5 billion is losses to the fishing industry in the Red Sea.
The United States has provided the bulk of bombs and weapons to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Washington also provides logistical and intelligence support for selecting airstrike targets. The war against Yemen would not be possible without U.S. support.
The bombing of fishing boats was among many attacks that have targeted civilians in past days. On Saturday, a civilian lost his life and three others, including two women, sustained injuries when coalition fighters lobbed a barrage of mortar shells at their home in an area of Harad district in Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah.
In a separate attack, a woman succumbed to injuries after a Saudi airstrike hit the Bani Sayyah area in the Razih district of the mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada.
On Friday, three civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded by artillery shells that struck civilian homes in the Dureihimi district. In the al Toheita district, one woman was killed and a child injured by Saudi artillery shells targeting homes in the area.
Top Photo | A screenshot from video showing a previous attack on a Saudi warship.
Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media.
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