Houthis claim downing Saudi armed reconnaissance drone in Yemen’s Marib

Sanaa: Yemen’s Houthi group has said that it had shot down a Saudi armed reconnaissance drone in Yemen’s northeastern Marib province and intercepted Saudi warplanes over Yemen’s western coast.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement carried by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV on Wednesday evening (local time) that the group’s forces had “a short while ago shot down an armed reconnaissance drone belonging to the Saudi enemy while it was carrying out hostile operations over Marib province, using an appropriate weapon.”

In a related development, Sarea said the group’s forces at 6:40 p.m. local time intercepted two formations of Saudi F-15 fighter jets that had taken off from the Khamis Mushait air base in southwestern Saudi Arabia and entered the airspace over Mocha in Yemen’s western Taiz province, reports Xinhua news agency.

Sarea said the interception was carried out with several locally manufactured surface-to-air missiles, forcing the fighter jets “to leave immediately before carrying out any hostile operation.”

Earlier Wednesday, the Houthi group said it had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet with a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile over Marib.

The Houthis also accused Saudi Arabia earlier Wednesday of carrying out more than 450 airstrikes across seven Yemeni provinces over the past week.

The Houthis have made major territorial gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, capturing the strategic port city of Mocha on September 10 before seizing Mayun Island at the heart of the Bab al-Mandab Strait on September 11. The strait is a vital maritime chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen’s conflict erupted in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

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