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Yemen downs invader Saudi reconnaissance drone flying over Sa’ada

Yemeni armed forces have shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition flying over the northeastern province of Sa’ada.

They hit the Chinese-built long-endurance Wing Loong 2 drone with a surface-to-air missile on Monday evening, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e tweeted. 

He said the drone was targeted while carrying out hostile acts over the Kitaf wa al-Boqe’e district of the province.

Sare’e noted that the military operation was filmed, and the related video footage will be released to media outlets soon.

On August 14, Yemeni forces used a domestically-developed missile to shoot down a US-built Boeing Insitu ScanEagle spy drone belonging to Saudi Arabia. 

The unmanned aerial vehicle was flying over Medghal district in Yemen’s central province of Ma’rib.

Back on June 22, army forces and their allies shot down a Saudi ScanEagle reconnaissance drone over al-Mushajah area in the Sirwah district of Ma’rib province.

A day earlier, the media bureau of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement released the video of the same type of unmanned aerial vehicle being downed by a surface-to-air missile over Sirwah district.

Saudi warplanes launch over a dozen airstrikes  

On Monday evening, Saudi warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes against residential neighborhoods across Yemen. 

They struck Sirwah district in Ma’rib province on a dozen occasions, though there were no immediate reports on possible casualties and the extent of damage.

Warplanes also launched three aerial attacks against the Mahliyah district in the same Yemeni province.

Additionally, Saudi jets launched three airstrikes against Jabal Murad and Rahabah districts.

Four air raids were reported in the Nati’ district in central Bayda province as well.  

Separately, four people sustained gunshot wounds after Saudi border guards opened fire at Raqou area of the Monabbih district in Sa’ada province.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and regional allies, launched a war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah resistance movement.

The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases.

Yemeni armed forces and allied Popular Committees, however, have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders, and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.

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