Araweelo News Network

Houthi fighters chant slogans as they ride a military vehicle during a gathering in the capital Sana’a on January 3, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Jizan(ANN)-Yemen’s army and popular committee forces have taken a strategic mountain in the province of Jawf from Saudi-backed mercenaries.

According to al-Masirah television network, the forces gained control over the Anbara mountain and nearby hills in the Ham area of Jawf’s Matun district on Sunday.

A military source said scores of mercenaries were killed and injured in the operation and their weapons and equipment seized.

Yemeni forces further continued to attack military positions in the Saudi territory in retaliation for the kingdom’s aggression against their impoverished nation. They managed to capture the Saudi military base of al-Jamim in the southwestern border region of Jizan.

A footage released on Sunday showed Yemeni forces looking around the base after they captured it and forced Saudi troops to flee. They also destroyed the main building of the base with explosives and seized Saudi military vehicles.

Separately, Saudi warships prevented a ship carrying fuel from entering the port of Hudaydah in Yemen, sources said Sunday.

A local source said the fuel was to be used for generating electricity in the city. The source said the vessel was inspected and its documents seized.

In March, Saudi Arabia and its allies urged the UN to assume the control of the Yemeni port after they failed to capture the Houthi-held city despite repeated assaults and heavy bombardments.

The Red Sea port near the Bab al-Mandab Strait is part of a broad battlefront where Saudi-backed forces are fighting the Yemeni army and its Houthi allies, which control most of northern and western Yemen.

The humanitarian situation in Yemen has dramatically deteriorated amid a Saudi blockade, which has put the impoverished country on the brink of widespread famine.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a destructive military campaign against Yemen since March 2015 to reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Houthi movement.

The campaign has seriously damaged the country’s infrastructure. Local Yemeni sources have put the death toll from the Saudi war at over 12,000, including many women and children.