The Huthis claimed on Thursday to have attacked on Wednesday the port of Qena, in the Yemeni province of Shabua (south), to «prevent the smuggling» of fuel by the international coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
The military spokesman for the Huthis, Yahya Sari, said on his account on the social network Twitter that «the Yemeni Armed Forces prevented an attempt to loot crude oil from the port of Quena, in Shabua, used by the US-Saudi aggression for smuggling».
Thus, he stressed that the «operation» was launched against «an oil tanker that was in the port to loot and smuggle oil» after it ignored «multiple warning messages».
«The Armed Forces reiterated their commitment to protect the national sovereign wealth as one of the rights of our oppressed people, the main one of which is the salaries of civil servants in all Yemeni regions,» Sari concluded.
According to reports carried by the Saudi television network Al Arabiya, Yemeni forces shot down a Huthi-controlled drone in the vicinity of Qena. The target was reportedly an oil tanker that was carrying out loading operations in the area.
The war in Yemen pits the internationally recognized government, now represented by the Presidential Leadership Council and supported by the aforementioned international coalition, against the Huthis, backed by Iran. The Huthis control the capital, Sana’a, and areas in the north and west of the country.
The United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, is trying to bring the parties closer together to relaunch the peace process, after the expiration in October of the truce agreed in April to mark the beginning of the month of Ramadan and subsequently extended on several occasions.
