Yemeni army forces, allies shoot down Saudi-led reconnaissance drone

Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from the Popular Committees, have intercepted and targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition while flying in the skies over Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Jizan.

News ID: 445709

Date: 28 June 2019 - 21:43

RNA - An unnamed source in the Yemeni air defense forces told the media bureau of the Houthi Ansarullah movement that Yemeni forces and their allies shot down the drone as it was on a reconnaissance mission east of the mountainous Jabal al-Nar area of the region, located 967 kilometers southwest of the capital Riyadh, on Friday afternoon.

The development came only hours after Yemeni army forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees downed a Saudi-led spy drone in the skies northeast of al-Durayhimi district in the country’s western coastal province of Hudaydah.

On June 23, Yemeni air defense forces and fighters from Popular Committees shot down a Saudi-led drone over al-Sadis area of Saudi Arabia’s southern border region of Najran.

A day earlier, Yemeni air defense forces and their allies had downed a drone as it was flying over al-Mazraq area in the Harad district of Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah, located approximately 130 kilometers northwest of Sana’a.

Yemeni army forces and fighters from Popular Committees shot down a spy drone of the Saudi-led military coalition in the skies over Hudaydah on June 21.

Yemeni snipers shoot dead two Saudi troopers

Also on Friday, Yemeni forces and their allies fatally shot two soldiers in the al-Shabakah area of the kingdom’s Najran region.

Separately, eight people, including women and children, lost their lives and several others sustained injuries when Saudi-led fighter jets launched two airstrikes against a house in Wadi Warzan area of Dimnat Khadir district in Yemen’s southern province of Ta’izz.

Moreover, three women sustained injuries when Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi lobbaed a barrage of mortar shells at residential buildings in al-Salkhaneh area of al-Hali district in Hudaydah province.

A boy and a man were also injured as shells fired by Saudi-paid militiamen struck Shuhada area in the same Yemeni district.

According to Press TV, Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.

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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