Yemeni forces shoot down US RQ-20 Puma reconnaissance drone in Jizan skies

Spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a post published on his Twitter page that Yemeni air defense units shot down the unmanned aerial vehicle as it was on a reconnaissance mission on Thursday evening.

He added that the media bureau of Yemen’s Operations Command Center is going to release the video footage of the operation within the next few hours.

The development came a day after Saree said Yemeni forces and their allies had shot down a Saudi-led spy drone as it was flying in the skies over al-Jubah district in Yemen’s central province of Ma’rib.

Saree identified the downed aircraft as a Chinese-made CH-4 unmanned aerial vehicle.

Yemeni air defense forces and their allies also shot down a US-built Boeing Insitu ScanEagle spy drone drone with a precision missile on September 27.

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces said at the time the aircraft was struck as it was on a surveillance mission over the Medghal district of Ma’rib province.

Saudi mortar shell strikes residential area in Hudaydah, injures 2

Also on Thursday, a young man and a teenager sustained injuries when a mortar shell fired by Saudi mercenaries struck a residential area in Wadi Nakhlah area, which lies east of Hays district in Yemen’s western coastal province of Hudaydah.

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 popular 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.