Shiek consultation
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The Riyadh government's invasion of Yemen has cost the kingdom tens of billions of dollars and the lives of over 2,000 Saudi soldiers killed in combat with Yemeni army and popular forces over the past 9 months, a well-known source in the royal family disclosed on Friday.

"Saudi Arabia has spent over 200 billion Saudi rials (over $60 billion) for its aggression against Yemen in the past nine months," Mujtahid wrote in his latest tweets today.

Mujtahid is a Saudi political activist who is believed to be a member of or have a well-connected source in the royal family.

He noted that the Saudi army has lost over 2,000 Saudi soldiers in the war with Yemen, while over 4,850 more have been wounded.

"The daily cost of the war for Saudi Arabia is 750 million Saudi rials (over $200 million) which is spent on purchasing bullets and for logistics," Mujtahid said.

Since March, the Saudis have led a bombing campaign in Yemen killing thousands of civilians on the pretext of targeting the revolutionary forces.

Human Rights Watch has said Saudi "airstrikes have indiscriminately killed and injured civilians" in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a and elsewhere.

In November, the US State Department approved the sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Saudi Arabia, despite reports that the kingdom has killed and injured civilians in airstrikes against rebels in Yemen.

The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which facilitates foreign arms sales, notified lawmakers on November 13 that the sale had been approved.

The approval cleared the way for the sale to go through - that is, unless lawmakers block it in the next 30 days, which is a rare move.

The sale included 22,000 smart and general purpose bombs, including 1,000 GBU-10 Paveway II Laser Guided Bombs, and more than 5,000 Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits to turn older bombs into precision-guided weapons using GPS signals.

The bombs are in part intended to replenish Saudi inventories that have been depleted by its air operations against the Yemeni civilians.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 254 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 7,116 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.