Yemeni forces, allies shoot down Saudi-led reconnaissance drone in Hudaydah

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 the country’s western coastal province of Hudaydah.

An unnamed Yemeni military official said Yemeni air defense forces and their allies shot down the drone with a surface-to-air missile as it was on a reconnaissance mission over Jabalya area in the al-Tuhayta district of the province, located around 230 kilometers west of the capital Sana’a, on Wednesday afternoon.

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Yemeni army repels pro-Hadi militia attack in Hudaydah

Meanwhile, Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters thwarted an offensive by Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi on al-Jah area of the same Yemeni district.

A Yemeni security source, requesting not to be named, said scores of Saudi-paid militiamen were killed and their munitions destroyed during the battle.

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Separately, a civilian lost his life when Saudi border guards opened indiscriminate fire on residential buildings at al-Raqou area in the Monabbih district of Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada.

Elsewhere in the Razih district of the same Yemeni province, Saudi forces launched a barrage of mortar shells and artillery rounds at residential areas. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

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 Ansarullah movement.

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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 nearly five years.

The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.