Alwaght- Amongst mainstream media's silence about one of the most significant developments in southern Saudi Arabia, the pictures released by the Yemeni forces of their operations inside the Saudi borders have widely circulated in the social media, ramping up the credibility of the claims that the Ansarullah movement’s forces would soon reach the Saudi capital Riyadh.
After heavy clashes with the Saudi forces and targeting and destroying several military positions in Al-Rabuah town in Asir region, the Yemeni forces have managed to document their claims that they have made advances in Saudi territories and captured some parts of the kingdome’s southern areas.
On Monday night, Al-Massira TV, affiliated with Ansarullah, has aired a 28-minute video, showing the Ansarullah forces’ operation and their penetration into the southern Saudi town of Al-Rabuah. The video documents the Ansarullah’s fighters while in camouflage uniforms clashing with the Saudi military forces, which are equipped with armed vehicles and supplied by air coverage. The video shows that Yemeni forces in a special operation gained control over all of the town’s streets and the areas around which were surrounded by the Saudi military sites and depots of advanced arms after the Saudi forces fled their positions. The fighters are shown while raising the Yemeni flags across Al-Rabuah streets. The news coming out from other fronts, especially from inside Yemen, indicate that the Saudi failures have continued in these areas. The Yemeni army and revolutionary committees’ missile and artillery units have lobbed a number of rackets at the Nahouqa and Rajla military bases in Saudi Arabia, inflicting heavy tolls on the enemy forces, the Yemeni military sources near Najran border area said. In Jizan occupied region also the military sources noted that the Yemeni forces’ missile and artillery attacks have left dozens of Saudi troops dead and wounded, Iran’s Fars News Agency (FNA) reported. Saudi forces have been terrorized as the popular committees and the army forces shelled the Saudi military positions in Qulal Alshaybani mountainous area in Dhahran region.
Mainstream media turns blind eye
While the global prominent news agencies and networks massively cover the advances made by the terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, they go dark when it comes to reporting about the Yemeni forces’ considerable progress in their fight against Saudi Arabia. However, the pictures showing the Yemeni troops in Al-Rabuah town have widely been circulated across the social media, specifically Twitter. Criticizing the hypocritical approach of the world’s prominent media brands, the analysts have asked Saudi Arabia to, just like Ansarullah movement, film and air its claimed advances. “Welcome to Al-Rabuah the former Saudi town”, said Haykal Bafana, the Yemeni prominent analyst and media activist, retweeting the pictures released by Yemen’s Al-Massira TV. Reuters, BBC, CNN and the rest of Western Media were not allowed to report about the Saudi cities coming under Yemeni forces’ attacks, Bafana added. Also retweeting video of Yemeni troops’ control over Saudi town Al-Raboaa, Hisham al-Omeisy, a political analyst from Sana'a, has wondered why the Saudi media empire was not showing the kingdom’s army advances inside Yemen just as the way Ansarullah movement has done in Saudi Arabia. Al-Omeisy mocks the pro-Saudi media’s news reports coming out daily without showing any images about the Saudi-led coalition’s advances in Yemen.
The Yemeni forces’ gradual progress in Saudi Arabia’s southern regions has fueled, mockingly or seriously, the notion on social media that if the Yemeni troops keep developing in southern regions of the kingdom in such a speed, they would soon reach Riyadh. “Today, Najran, Jizan and Asir and very soon Riyadh; be sure that Yemen’s army would capture your palaces, and it would avenge thousands of people martyred by your planes’ airstrikes”, a former member of Yemen's General People’s Congress posted on his Tweeter. Earlier, Haykal Bafaba had warned the Saudi king to give in before it was late and before the Yemeni forces reached the Saudi capital.
But, the Saudi defeats were not limited to the kingdom’s southern regions as the Arab coalition was dealt heavy blows in different parts of Yemen, specifically Marib province. The revolutionary committees’ fighters regained control of major centers in Marib after heavy clashes with pro-Hadi militants and terrorists, Zaid Ali al-Houthi, the spokesman for Yemen’s revolutionary committees told FNA. Noting that %75 of Marib is under the army and revolutionary committees’ control, al-Houthi added the forces were wrapping up the operation to fully gain control over the province. The spokesman continued that capturing the major centers and government headquarters had been crucial in conflicts for taking over the whole province. The revolutionary forces have provided the security of areas and the main roads. The Saudi defeat in Marib comes as at the beginning of the Arab coalition’s operation in Marib in September 2015 the media affiliated with Saudi Arabia launched a wide-ranging psychological warfare, propagating the certainty of the Saudi-led coalition’s victory. Meanwhile, on Friday morning, Yemen’s military and popular forces, led by Ansarullah movement, have launched fresh operation, intending to regain the strategic provinces of Shabwah and Dhale. The two southern provinces were captured by the Saudi-backed forces in July 2015.
Amid such conditions, the first batch of Emirati combat forces has arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday after it left Yemen. Staging a great welcome ceremony, the Emirati leaders and media tried to paint their troops as heroes. The UAE’s government has announced that the reception events and celebrations for return of Emirati forces would be held in different cities while the country’s leaders and people will attend them. All of the country’s TV networks have aired live the moment of arrival of their troops in Abu Dhabi. But, the UAE’s troops return to home was described as an escape by the independent media and observers, as the Yemeni activists have published the pictures of Emirati armed vehicles destroyed by Yemen’s forces, challenging the proclamations that the emirate forces were war heroes.
