News / Yemen

Yemeni forces intercept, shoot down Saudi-led bloc reconnaissance drone in Jizan

Monday, 12 November 2018 6:23 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 12 November 2018 7:08 PM ]

This file picture shows the wreckage of a reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle shot down by Yemeni forces in an unidentified location on the Saudi side of the border. (Photo by the media bureau of Yemen’s Operations Command Center)

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

An unnamed Yemeni military source said Yemeni air defense forces and their allies shot down the drone as it was on a reconnaissance mission over the mountainous Jabal al-Doud district in Jizan, situated 966 kilometers south of the capital Riyadh, on Monday evening, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

Earlier in the day, Yemeni army forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees fired a domestically-developed Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) ballistic missile at a position of Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the country’s northwestern province of Hajjah.

Yemeni forces prepare to launch a domestically-manufactured Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) ballistic missile at a designated target inside Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Yemen’s Joint Operations Command Center)

The missile slammed into an area in the Hayran district, leaving scores of Saudi mercenaries dead and injured.

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

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.

A Yemeni doctor inspects a child suffering from severe malnutrition at a hospital in the northern district of Abs in Yemen's northwestern Hajjah province on November 11, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

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.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

Saudi Arabia Yemen Middle East ballistic missile Yemeni forces Popular Committees Yemeni troops Hajjah drone Jizan espionage Saudi mercenaries spycraft Zelzal-1