Yemeni forces shoot down Saudi reconnaissance drone over Hajjah

Yamanyoon- Dec 30, 2017

Yemeni army soldiers, supported by allied fighters from the Houthi Ansarullah movement, have managed to shoot down a Saudi unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as it was on a reconnaissance mission in Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah.

Al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed official from Yemen’s air defense unit, reported that the Saudi reconnaissance drone was shot down as it was flying in the skies over Hirz district in the early hours of Saturday.

Back on October 27, Yemeni forces, using a surface-to-air missile, shot down a Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet belonging to the Royal Saudi Air Force as it was flying east of the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a. Earlier that month, the Yemeni army announced that it also managed to shoot down a US-made General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, a drone operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force.

In June, the Yemeni air defense forces also intercepted and shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet in the skies over Sana’a.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an invasion of Yemen from the air, land, and sea since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The Riyadh regime has, however, failed to reach its goals despite suffering great expense. Over the past two years, Houthis have been running state affairs and defending Yemeni people against the Saudi aggression.

Latest figures show that the war has so far killed over 13,600 Yemenis and wounded thousands more. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

Certain Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, are key partners to the campaign, which lacks any international mandate and has faced increasing criticism.

Saudi Arabia has also imposed a total embargo on Yemen, causing severe shortages of food and medicine. A recent cholera epidemic has been blamed on those shortages.