TEHRAN - As UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths continues Track II efforts to lay the foundation for peace-building in Yemen, the Yemeni army and popular committees report the attack on the cease-fire by the invader. Fighting broke out in Al-Hudaydah and other fronts in Yemen a day after the ceasefire agreement, and the Yemeni army and popular committees repelled successive raids of mercenaries and invaders.

What is remarkable on the battlefield is the ever-increasing power of the Yemeni drones and missiles. So far, dozens of missiles have been fired at the military, airports, and oil facilities of Saudi Arabia by the Yemeni army and popular committees. The missiles are now more accurate than ever and hit targets with high precision.

Therefore, despite the Patriot missile defense system in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis have begun efforts to take ownership of Russia’s S400 air defense system.

The spokesman of Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, announced that if the Saudi led-coalition continues aggression on Yemen, the Yemeni missile capabilities will also increase.

The first drone strike of the Yemeni army and popular committees in 2019

The latest blow on Yemen’s aggressors and mercenaries was on the morning of January 10, 2019, during which a Yemeni drone targeted the aggressors' base at the Al-Anad air base in Lahaj province, killing and wounding dozens.  

According to reports, Abdullah al-Nahki, Yemen’s Chief of Staff and other senior military commanders including Deputy Chief of Staff Saleh Al-Zindani, were hospitalized in Aden during the operations.

The military and drone power of the Yemeni army and popular committees are invaders’ nightmare

It is undeniable that ballistic missiles and drones of the army and popular committees of Yemen have a strategic impact in the Yemeni war and play a significant role in deterrence against the Saudi coalition.

Last year when the Yemenis unveiled the Badr-1 smart rocket, the anti-Yemeni coalition along with their US-Zionist allies got worried.

The path to Yemen’s missiles development

A Yemeni newspaper reported: “The Yemenis bought the ballistic missiles in the 70s from the Soviet Union, rockets such as Scud, Luna, and Tochka.”

In 1998, the Yemeni army had Iraqi experts help develop its missiles alongside former Soviet Union rocket engineers. These both played an important role in the construction of the Yemeni army's scientific research and development center in Sana'a. For six years, more than 2,000 ballistic missiles were transferred from Mukalla and Aden to Sana'a.

Despite the claims over Iran’s support for Yemen’s missile defense, Sana’a has had one of the largest ballistic missile arsenals in the Middle East in terms of numbers and range. The Yemeni army demonstrated its missile capability in the Yemeni unification ceremony in May 1990. More than 60 percent of the Yemeni missiles are exported from countries, especially North Korea, Russia and China, and 40 percent are made inside Yemen.

Many believe the development of the missile program in Yemen has been extended to 1,000 kilometers with ballistic missiles. Yemen, which did not earlier have missiles with a range of more than 300 kilometers, within two years, capabilities reached a range of 1,000 kilometers covering the entire island Arabian peninsula. The next ballistic missile, the Bokan-3, whose range exceeds 1,500 km, will be a surprise.

Destruction of Yemeni missiles didn’t come true

The United States and the Saudi-led allies sought to destroy Yemen’s missile capability, but they failed to reach that objective.

Mohammad Abbas al-Zaleei, a Yemeni analyst, writes: “The ballistic missiles launched by Houthis in Saudi Arabia are not from Iran, and those who claim that these missiles are sent from Iran in small pieces or as an entire rocket are wrong. This is a misconception and illogical. These missiles are Yemen missiles.”

The Yemeni missile power has frustrated the officials of Riyadh and their allies. The reality is the US Patriot missile defense system in Saudi Arabia has failed to deal with Yemen’s missile power.

Yemenis rockets and drones have become a nightmare for aggressors.