Yemeni army forces, backed by allied fighters from the 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 the kingdom’s southern border region of Jizan.
The media bureau of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement announced in a statement that Yemeni air defense forces and their allies shot down the drone with a surface-to-air missile over Jabal al-Amoud mountainous area on Tuesday evening.
Last week, Yemeni air defense units intercepted and targeted a Saudi-led CH-4 drone while flying in the skies over Yemen's northern province of al-Jawf.
On January 1, Ansarullah announced in a statement that Yemeni air defense forces and their allies had shot down a Saudi-led unmanned aerial vehicle as it was on a reconnaissance mission over al-Dayer area of Saudi Arabia’s southern border region of Jizan, situated 966 kilometers (600 miles) south of the capital Riyadh.
The development came a day after Saree said Yemeni forces and their allies had shot down a Saudi-led spy drone as it was flying in the skies over al-Tina area of the Hayran district in Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah.
The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces identified the downed aircraft as a Chinese-made Phantom unmanned aerial vehicle.
Yemeni air defense forces and their allies shot down a Turkish-built Vestel Karayel drone with a precision missile on December 30 last year.
Saree said at the time the aircraft was struck as it was on a surveillance mission over al-Salif coastal village in Yemen’s western province of Hudaydah.
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 former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur 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 war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past four and a half years.
The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.