Yemeni Air Defense Forces Shoot US-built Saudi-led MQ-9 Reaper in Dhamar

By Staff, Agencies

Yemen’s Armed Forces and Popular Committees intercepted and targeted a US-made drone belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition while flying in the skies over Yemen’s southwestern province of Dhamar.

The media bureau of Yemen’s Ansarullah revolutionary movement, citing the spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced in a statement that Yemeni air defense forces and their allies shot down the US-built General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper [sometimes called Predator B] drone with a precision missile early on Wednesday.

The statement added that the aircraft was struck as it was on a surveillance mission, noting that the domestically-developed missile which brought down the drone will be showcased during a ceremony in the near future.

On Tuesday evening, dozens of Saudi-sponsored militiamen were killed when Yemeni army soldiers and their allies launched an offensive against their position in the kingdom’s southern border region of Jizan.

An unnamed Yemeni military source told Arabic-language al-Masirah TV network that Yemeni soldiers and allied fighters launched a domestically-developed Zelzal-1 [Earthquake-1] missile and artillery rounds at al-Mostehaddeth military camp, leaving dozens of Saudi mercenaries killed and injured.

Yemeni army soldiers and Popular Committees fighters had earlier shot and killed ten Saudi troopers east of al-Doud Mountain in Jizan.

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.

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.