Yemeni naval forces, backed by fighters from Popular Committees, have reportedly targeted an Emirati military vessel in a missile attack off the coast of the countrys southwesternprovince of Ta'izz.
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the frigate was targeted with a guided missile in waters near the port city ofMukha, situated 346kilometerssouth of the capital Sana'a, on Saturday afternoon.
The development came less than a week after Yemeni forces and their allies destroyed a gunboat of the Saudi-led coalition off the coast of Yemens western province ofHudaydah.
An unnamed military source asserted that the Saudi vessel was carrying out radar jamming and deception against the Yemeni army when it was targeted with a missile on July 24.
On January 30, Yemeni army forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, fired a guided missile at al-Madinahwarship in waters near the city of Hudaydah.
The Saudi-led coalition, which is assisting Riyadh in its war on Yemen, later confirmed the incident but claimed only five people had lost lives in the attack.
Yet, footage of the raid, provided by Yemeni forces,showed theenormity of the explosionand subsequent fire on the deck of the Saudi vessel.
On January 21, theYemeniCoast Guardwarned enemies battleships against using the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, to bomb civilian targets, emphasizing that such a practice poses grave threats to international maritime navigation in the area.
In October 2016, Yemeni forces and fighters from the Popular Committees destroyed an Emirati HSV-2Swifthybridcatamaran off the shores of Mukha.
Yemeni army forces had destroyed a Saudi warship in a missile attack in the southwestern coast of Yemen, in the Bab el-Mandeb, on October 10, 2015.
The development came only days after Yemeni forces managed to destroy another Saudi vessel in the area, with reports saying that the sunken ship had repeatedly fired rockets on residential areas in Ta'izz Province.