Thursday 18 June 2015

Ansarullah Officially Declares Role in Death of Saudi Air Force Commander

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior commander of Ansarullah confirmed on Wednesday that the Yemeni popular force and the army had killed Saudi Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Muhammad bin Ahmed al-Shaalan in a well-planned missile attack, rejecting the Riyadh allegations that the death of the General was the result of a heart attack.

“Shaalan was killed 5 days ago in the Yemeni army’s special operations against Amir Khalid airbase in Khamees al-Mushait border area in Saudi Arabia,” Colonel Salih Mohammad told FNA.

“The attack against Khalid airbase was waged by missiles and weapons systems that were not very special; the operation was planned by Ansarullah and the Yemeni army conducted it after Ansarullah provided it with the information about Muhammed Shaalan’s presence at Khalid airbase in Khamees al-Mushait,” he added.

Colonel Mohammad, meantime, said that the Yemeni army has also come in possession of advanced US-made weapons systems after capturing the Saudis’ Khalid airbase following the initial missile attack.

Last Wednesday and after the Saudi officials released the news on the death of the country’s air force commander as a result of a heart attack, sources in New York challenged the Saudi news agency’s report, saying the General was killed in Yemen’s missile attacks.

The official Saudi Press Agency had quoted the Ministry of Defense as saying last Wednesday that Shaalan died of a heart attack during a work trip outside the kingdom.

But an informed Yemeni source who called for anonymity said in New York last Wednesday that “Shaalan was killed in the Yemeni army’s missile attacks against Saudi Arabia’s Khamees al-Mushait region five days earlier”.

Then later on Wednesday, another well-known Saudi source rejected the reports that Shaalan had died of a heart attack, and disclosed that his body was charred showing that he has been killed in an enemy attack.

Jamal Bean wrote on his Tweeter page that Shaalan and his accompanying team have been killed in the Yemeni army’s missile attack since their corpses were scorched by the fire of a blast.

The Yemeni army targeted Amir Khalid military base in Khamees al-Mushait region by a Scud missile last week.

The Saudi army claimed that it had intercepted the Scud by two Patriot missiles, but the Arabic-language Al-Mayadeen news channel showed footage of the missile attack, reporting that it had hit the target.

Following the attack the Saudi army evacuated the passenger terminals of two airports in the nearby areas.

Also, Arab media reports said earlier that two Saudi military bases in the bordering areas came under missile attack by the Yemeni forces.

Al-Mayadeen quoted a military source in Yemen as saying that the army and popular forces targeted the two military bases of Ain al-Harrah and Malhamah with 10 and 7 missiles, respectively, last week.

The Yemeni forces also fired 11 missiles at military positions behind Jabal al-Dokhan in the Southwestern city of Jizan.

Last week, media reports said that the Saudis, including Royal family members, were in a rush to flee the country after Yemen’s first Scud missile hit a military airbase in Saudi Arabia’s South.

“The Saudi residents of Khamees al-Mushait are waiting in a several-kilometer-long trail of cars to flee after their city was hit by Yemeni Scud missiles,” the Arabic-language Sa’ada Press news website reported.

Moustafa Dannoun

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