Yemeni army forces shoot down US-made ScanEagle spy drone over Ma’rib amid Saudi evacuations

Yemeni air defense units shot down the unmanned aerial vehicle on Tuesday morning as it was carrying out hostile acts over the al-Jubah district, the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, announced via his Twitter page.

He added that the Yemeni Army is going to release the footage of the interception and shooting down of the US-made spy drone in the near future.

Back on September 27, Yemeni army forces and their allies shot down a Saudi-led ScanEagle reconnaissance drone as the aircraft was flying over the Medghal district of Ma’rib province.

A Saudi-led ScanEagle reconnaissance drone was intercepted and struck over the same district on August 14, as the aircraft was on a surveillance mission.

Saudi-backed militants evacuate families from Ma’rib

Meanwhile, dozens of militants, who are loyal to Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and fighting within the Saudi-led coalition’s ranks, have received orders to evacuate their families from Ma’rib.

Informed sources told Yemen News Portal website that the militants were initially based in Government House area, before they were ordered to transfer their families to al-Sharurah area on the border with Saudi Arabia.

The sources added that the evacuation took place as “Saudi Arabia intends to lure those who have fled battlefronts into fighting on its borders, and exert more pressure on those who are still in Ma’rib to stay on.”

Last week, several Yemeni parties, including al-Islah, blasted Saudi Arabia and its mercenaries for failing to stop the advances of Yemeni armed forces in Ma’rib province.

In a joint statement released on November 2, the parties expressed surprise at the ill performance of the Saudi-led coalition and its mismanagement of the tasks assigned to it in the Ma’rib fighting.

“Hadi and his government failed miserably in managing the battle in Marib,” they said, according to Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen television news network.

Also on Monday, Saudi-led warplanes conducted more than three dozen airstrikes against various residential neighborhoods across Ma’rib province.

A Yemeni security official told the official Saba news agency that the military aircraft launched 40 raids against al-Jubah and Sirwah districts.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and regional allies, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the Hadi government back to power and crushing Ansarullah. 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 the Popular Committees have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.