Houthi Shiite militants are setting up anti-aircraft batteries at a Yemen University, seemingly utilizing the educational institution to provide civilian cover against the ongoing Saudi-led air campaign against the Iran-backed fighters, Al Jazeera reports.
Dhamar University–where the Houthi jihadists are allegedly setting up their missile sites–is the largest university in Yemen.
Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri told reporters yesterday that the Houthis were utilizing the inhumane, guerilla tactics in order to keep their hold on power. The Houthis are using residential houses “as hideouts and stores for their equipment, and sometimes installing anti-aircraft equipment on top of civilian buildings to attract the alliance to bombard them and commit killing of innocents,” Gen. Asiri told the Saudi Press Agency.
Some observers have noted that the Houthis are adopting tactics akin to Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas, which utilized UN buildings and residential areas to launch missile strikes against Israel last summer. During the Israel-Hamas war, the Gaza-ruling terror group also used civilians as human shields so they could launch attacks under protected conditions.
In another seemingly desperate measure, Houthi militants have allegedly released 1,800 inmates from prisons throughout Yemen, Al Arabiya reported.
Houthi officials have said they will continue to battle the 10-member Sunni coalition and try to maintain control over Sanaa.
“If Saudi Arabia continues its aggressions against the oppressed Yemeni people, [Houthi] fighters will pave the way for the Saudi regime’s destruction by conducting martyrdom-seeking operations inside Saudi Arabia in the coming hours,” a top Houthi official told Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency.
Arab leaders have pledged that the ongoing air campaign against the Houthis will continue until the Iran-backed group withdraws and surrenders.
The 10-country coalition’s campaign–codenamed Operation “Decisive Storm– seeks to reinstall Yemen’s internationally-recognized President, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back into power.