Alwaght-Yemen’s Navy Forces have vowed to destroy any invading warships belonging to the Saudi-led coalition with missiles, a day after the invading military force launched an offensive against the flashpoint Red Sea port city of al-Hudaydah.
In a statement carried by Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network on Thursday, the command further said that the country’s forces, including those of the Navy, would fulfill their national and religious duty to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen against the enemy.
It further said that destroying an Emirati warship, employed by the Saudi-led coalition, with a pair of Yemeni missiles near Hudaydah a day earlier had been carried out in accordance with that duty, adding that the command’s forces could handle all kinds of challenges posed by the invading forces.
The command reiterated that there was no reason for civilian ships to be worried as long as they followed international maritime law, calling on them to sail twenty nautical miles away from the coalition’s warships as a guarantee for their safety.
Forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition on Wednesday launched an offensive against Hudaydah, aiming to take the city that has been controlled by the popular Ansarullah movement. The Saudi-led coalition claims that the movement is using the key port for weapons delivery, an allegation strongly rejected by the fighters.
The offensive comes as aid groups have warned that some 300,000 children risk death, injury and starvation as they are trapped in the port city, which is the main route for food to reach most Yemenis, 8.4 million of whom are already on the verge of famine.
The United Nations has already voiced deep concern over the coalition’s full-scale attack in Hudaydah.
The Hudaydah offensive is considered the largest battle of the three-year war in Yemen.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement, warned that "the offensive against Hudaydah risks triggering catastrophic consequences for all of Yemen.”
It added that the peaceful people of Yemen might find themselves “on the brink of death” if the invasion led to a siege of the port, as it serves as the entry point for 70 percent of the impoverished country's imports.
