SANAA (Dispatches) – Yemeni forces on Saturday shot down a “spy drone” of the Saudi-led coalition that supports the militants and mercenaries in the country after the coalition violated a truce.
“With a surface-to-air missile, our air defense shot down the drone that was hovering over Hayran district in the province of Hajjah in violation of the truce,” al-Masirah TV quoted the country’s armed forces’ spokesman Yehya Sarea as saying.
There was no comment from the coalition.
This was the second “spy drone” the Yemeni armed forces have downed in Hajjah in nearly two weeks amid the two-month truce starting April 2.
So far, the truce has been largely held despite sporadic clashes.
On Thursday, the Yemeni forces said they are considering a request by the UN envoy to extend the ongoing truce with the Saudi-backed militants, which expires on June 2.
The truce marks the first breakthrough in more than seven years in efforts to end the Saudi-led war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the country to the brink of starvation.
The development comes two days after the leader of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement said the United States, with the help of its allied militant groups, is building several military bases in the country’s eastern provinces of Hadhramaut and al-Mahrah as well as on the Red Sea coast.
Addressing a delegation of tribal leaders from the western Yemeni province of Ibb on Thursday evening, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said Washington is setting up military installations in eastern Yemen and the country’s southern coastal city of Aden.
He asserted that the Yemeni nation cannot accept Washington’s diktats, warning that the enemies are hell-bent on sowing the seeds of discord and division among people.
“We must work for security and social stability in Ibb province through compromise and cooperation among local authorities,” the top Yemeni resistance leader told the delegation.
He said the “enemies” have begun to mobilize military reinforcements by taking advantage of the UN-brokered ceasefire, which clearly shows their orientation towards the next stage of the war, and bears testimony to their failure in the previous phase.
“Enemies, having become fairly frustrated with attempts to impose their diktats through ousted Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, have decided to remove him in a humiliating matter,” Houthi said.