A high-ranking Yemeni military commander loyal to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the former president, has been killed when army soldiers and allied fighters from the Houthi Ansarullah movement launched a surprise attack in the mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada.

Brigadier General Salih Balaid al-Marqashi, a commander of pro-Hadi operations in Baqim district, was killed along with a dozen Hadi loyalists on Friday as Yemeni troops and their allies mounted an assault in the Murabba Shaja area near Saudi Arabia’s southern border region of Najran.

Colonel Ahmed Abu Hadi, commander of the First Division of the pro-Hadi Special Forces Brigade, and dozens of pro-Hadi militiamen lost their lives on February 8, when Yemeni troops and Ansarullah fighters carried out a similar attack east of Harad district in the northwestern province of Hajjah.

Colonel Ahmed Abu Hadi, commander of the First Division of the pro-Hadi Special Forces Brigade (via Twitter)

On January 10, Yemeni forces and Popular Committees fighters attacked Saudi Arabia's mercenaries at Anad Air Base in the southwestern province of Lahij with the new domestically-developed Qasef K2 (Striker K2) combat drone.

On January 13, Chief of Yemen's pro-Hadi military intelligence agency Brigadier General Saleh Tamah succumbed to injuries he had sustained in the same drone strike.

Slain Yemeni Brigadier General Saleh Tamah (via Twitter)

Pro-Hadi deputy chief of staff General Saleh Zindani died of his wounds at a hospital in the United Arab Emirates on February 3.

He was among several senior Saudi-sponsored commanders who were injured in the Yemeni aerial assault.

Pro-Hadi deputy chief of staff General Saleh Zindani (via Twitter)

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing Hadi’s government back to power and crushing Ansarullah.

A Yemeni man checks debris of a building destroyed in Saudi airstrikes in Yemen's capital, Sana’a, on February 1, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.