Yemeni Forces, Allies Shoot Down Saudi-Led Surveillance Drone in Jizan

Yemen’s army and allied forces have reportedly intercepted and targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition, in retaliation for the alliance’s military campaign against the impoverished country.

Yemen’s al-Masirah television network quoted an unnamed military source as saying that Yemeni troops 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 Wednesday.

The source said that army forces managed to push back pro-Hadi forces advancing into Yemen, seizing a considerable amount of weapons and causing material damage to them.

 In a separate development on Thursday, a Yemeni child was killed and another person was injured when artillery rounds and mortar shells launched by Saudi-backed militiamen rained down on residential buildings in Manba border district in the northern province of Sa’ada.

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.

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.

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