Al-Houthi calls on US to ‘learn from Vietnam’ as US announces deployment in Saudi Arabia

Head of Yemen's Supreme Revolutionary Committee has called on the US to "learn from Vietnam" after Washington announced plans to deploy about 2,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia.

News ID: 447477

Date: 13 October 2019 - 17:02

RNA - An “increase in numbers does not mean victory,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi warned in a series of tweets, adding the US should also learn from its “useless wars” in countries such as Yemen and Iraq.

The official vowed that the Yemeni nation would continue its resistance against Saudi Arabia and other countries which are supported by the US in their war on the impoverished nation.

“Your previous forces, weapons and military commanders, which proved that the US is killing the Yemeni people, did not frighten us,” he said.

“An increase in your numbers will surely not be a concern for us,” al-Houthi added.

The remarks came a few hours after Washington announced the deployment of 1,800 additional troops, two fighter squadrons, two Patriot batteries, and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) in the oil-rich kingdom.

The deployment follows a successful Yemeni drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Khurais and Abqaiq oil facilities last month in retaliation for the kingdom’s US-backed aggression against the country.

'Surprise the world'

On Friday, al-Houthi called on the United States to “surprise the world” and demonstrate the “little bit of humanity that they claim to have” by turning away from its “hostile policy” despite its role in “creating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world”.

“Such a policy has led to nothing but frustration and harm for you,” he added, referring to recent statements made by US President Donald Trump highlighting the high costs of America’s wars in the Middle East.

The US has been a major backer of a Saudi Arabia ever since it launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi movement.

Resistance by Yemen’s armed forces, led by the Houthi Ansarullah movement, has pushed the Saudi war to a stalemate, with Yemeni forces deploying increasingly sophisticated retaliatory attacks against the Saudis.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 91,000  lives over the past four and a half years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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