• Middle East: Houthis claim the largest military operation against Saudi Arabia in four years of war in Yemen
  • Saudi Arabia.The AVE to Mecca suspends its services "until further notice" after a fire at a station

One of lime and another of sand. The Shiite rebel group of the Houthis has executed two contradictory acts that could bring negotiations closer to the end of a conflict that is moving towards five years of hostilities. The organization has claimed a military operation on the Saudi border that would have resulted in 500 dead Saudi soldiers , another 2,000 captured and dozens of armored vehicles and weapons destroyed or confiscated. A military coup that yesterday was accompanied by the unilateral release of at least 290 rival prisoners , including three Saudis.

"Operation Victoria de Dios is the biggest military campaign carried out since the brutal aggression began," said Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdelsalam in reference to the airstrikes launched on Yemen by the Arab coalition that has led Saudi Arabia since March 2015. "The enemy suffered serious losses and wide swaths of territory have been released in just a few days," he said at a press conference in which alleged images of the operation were presented as evidence.

The photograms and video fragments published by the al-Masirah related channel show Saudi armored vehicles in rebel hands , as well as fighters trapped by the Houthis, mostly without uniforms. Two of the captured men claim to come from Saudi Arabia. And one of them explains to the camera that he had been forced to enroll. " The attacked forces included commanders and Saudi and Yemeni soldiers ," a military spokesman said. In the onslaught, the Houthis claim to have captured three Saudi brigades in the nth blow to the interests of the kingdom.

The operation was carried out in the southern Saudi region of Najran, bordering Yemen. In recent months, Saudi government troops - backed by coalition bombings - have faced Houthis in the Yemeni region of Kataf, in Saada province, near the border with the Saudi kingdom and the land of origin of the Houthi movement that controls since late 2014 large areas of the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Houthis have launched attacks against Saudi airports near the border and attributed the attack against the Aramco refineries . "Our military capacity is not fictitious. Our drones have attacked oil fields, military bases and airports and will do so again if Saudi Arabia maintains its hostilities," Mohamed Ali al Huti, one of the group's leaders, told EL MUNDO recently. "We do not anticipate events. When the operation is executed, the Ministry of Defense will be in charge of announcing it," he added when asked about possible new attacks.

His alleged military defeat, of which Riyadh has chosen to remain silent , coincided yesterday with the release of 290 prisoners - among them, 42 survivors of a Saudi airstrike - who were so far in Houthi prisons. "Our initiative demonstrates our credibility in implementing the Sweden agreement and we urge the other party to take a similar step ," said the head of the organization's prison affairs committee, Abdelqader al Murtada.

The release, scheduled in a swap of 7,000 prisoners from each side agreed last December in Stockholm , was certified by the international committee of the Red Cross. "It's another small step in the right direction. The humanitarian situation in Yemen is catastrophic and any action to mitigate its hardness is positive," said Fabrizio Carboni, director of the Middle East committee. The prisoners were transferred from Sanaa to their homes, after checking their health conditions.

On the table also remains the Houthi offer to stop the attacks against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates if, in return, the bombings cease . An initiative that has not obtained a public response from Riyadh. In recent days, the US press has echoed the Saudi movements to commit to a partial ceasefire in Yemen, restricted to some areas of the country, in order to relaunch political negotiations. Since 2015, more than 90,000 people have died and 14 million civilians - half of the population - are on the verge of famine .

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  • Yemen
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