Yemeni forces shoot down Saudi-led combat drone in Sana’a

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 region in the country’s western-central province of Sana'a.

An unnamed Yemeni military source told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni air defense forces and their allies shot down the US-built MQ-1 Predator combat drone with a surface-to-air missile late on Tuesday.

The source added that the unmanned aerial vehicle was brought down as it was on a mission in the skies over Dian area in the Bani Matar district of the province.

PressTV-Yemen forces shoot down Saudi-led spy drone: Video

The drone was struck while on a surveillance mission over Bani Muadh area.

On April 19, the media bureau of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement announced in a statement that Yemeni air defense forces and their allies had shot down a Chinese-built medium-altitude and long-endurance Wing Loong drone with a surface-to-air missile.

The statement issued on April 19 added that the drone was struck as it was on a surveillance mission over Bani Muadh area in the Sahar district of Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada. It was armed with air-to-surface weapons.

PressTV-Yemeni forces shoot down 3 Saudi-led spy drones

Yemeni air defense forces and their allies have shot down three Saudi-led reconnaissance drones.

Yemeni soldiers and fighters from Popular Committees intercepted and shot down an MQ-1 drone in the Hamdan district of Sana’a province on March 23.

Also on Tuesday, Yemeni troops and Popular Committees fighters thwarted an infiltration attempt by Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the Khabb wa ash Sha'af district of the country’s northern province of al-Jawf, killing and injuring scores of the mercenaries in the process.

Yemeni army soldiers and their allies also targeted the position of Saudi-paid militiamen on the outskirts of al-Sadis military base in Saudi Arabia's southern province of Najran. A number of Saudi mercenaries were killed and wounded as a result.

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 the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

According to a December 2018 report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, 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 said in a report in December 2018 that over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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