Yemeni forces intercept, shoot down Saudi-led reconnaissance drone in Najran

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 a mountainous region in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Najran.

An unnamed Yemeni military source said Yemeni air defense forces and their allies shot down the drone as it was on a reconnaissance mission over al-Sawh area of the region, situated 844 kilometers (524 miles) south of the capital Riyadh, with a surface-to-air missile on Wednesday evening.

The development took place only a few days after Yemeni armed forces unveiled four domestically-built long-range, surface-to-air missile defense systems, which could act as game changers and alter the course of battle in the face of the deadly campaign led by Saudi Arabia against Yemen.

The president of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Mahdi al-Mashat, who was speaking at a ceremony in the capital Sana’a on Sunday, identified the systems as Fater-1 (Innovator-1), Thaqib-1 (Piercer-1), Thaqib-2 and Thaqib-3.

Yemeni army unveils four advanced domestically-built missile defense systems

The defense systems are to act as game changers in the battle against the Saudi-led aggressors.

The systems have entered service following successful tests, the official announced.

Mashat praised the efforts by the Yemeni Ministry of Defense as regards the development and modernization of the military systems in order to deter or, if need be, confront the enemy.

“The new defense systems will change the course of the battle against the coalition of aggression, and pave the ground for the introduction of more sophisticated systems in order to engage enemy targets,” Mashat stated.

Yemeni air defense systems repel Saudi-led aerial attack near Sana’a: Army spox

Yemeni air defense systems thwart an airstrike by the Saudi-led military coalition near the capital Sana’a.

Also on Wednesday, Saudi forces fired barrages of artillery rounds and mortar shells at residential neighborhoods in the Razih district of Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada. There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage available though.

Elsewhere in the Majzar district of Yemen’s central province of Ma'rib, Saudi-led fighter jets carried out three airstrikes, but no casualties and damage were quickly reported.

Saudi-led warplanes also launched more than a dozen aerial attacks against al-Ghayl district in the northern Yemeni province of al-Jawf. No reports of casualties and damage were immediately available.

19 children among fatalities in recent Saudi-led airstrikes against Yemen, says UN

The United Nations says nineteen children were among at least 31 civilians killed in Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen’s northern al-Jawf province last week.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing back to power the government of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and crushing the Ansarullah movement.

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.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have purchased billions of dollars' worth of weapons from the United States, France and the United Kingdom in the war on Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition has been widely criticized for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign. The alliance has carried out nearly 20,500 air raids in Yemen, according to the data collected by the Yemen Data Project.

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

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