‘Yemeni Forces Target Jordanian F-16 Fighter Jet Over Saudi Arabia’

Date: 25 February 2017 - 21:40

News ID: ۳۷۲۰۵

SANAA (Dispatches) – Yemeni air defense forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have reportedly intercepted and shot down a single-engine, supersonic and multirole F-16 fighter jet of the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
An unnamed Yemeni military source told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the aircraft was targeted as it was flying in the skies over Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Najran earlier in the day.
It had purportedly taken part in the Saudi-led military coalition strikes against Yemen.
This is while the General Command of Jordanian Armed Forces confirmed in a statement that one of its fighter jets had gone down inside Saudi Arabia, without providing any information about the cause of the crash.
The statement added that the pilot, identified as Adnan Naeem Abdulaziz Nabas, managed to eject before the plane crash. The Jordanian pilot will reportedly return to Jordan this evening in coordination with the Saudi air force.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates official news agency, WAM, reported that an Emirati soldier has been killed while fighting in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led military coalition.
The report identified the slain trooper as Khalid Ali Ghareeb al-Balushi.
The development came only two days after the commander of Emirati troops in Yemen, Brigadier Nasser Mushabab al-Otaibi, was killed after Yemeni forces fired a medium-range ballistic missile at a gathering of Riyadh-backed militiamen loyal to the former government in the Red Sea port city of Mokha, situated 346 kilometers south of the capital, Sana'a.
The media bureau of the operations command in Yemen announced on Wednesday that a host of Saudi mercenaries died and sustained injuries in the attack.
Arabic-language Here Aden news agency later reported that Major General Ahad Saif al-Yafei, the the second-in-command of the Saudi-backed military forces, had also been killed in the offensive.
Also on Friday noon, Yemeni soldiers and allied fighters fatally shot a Saudi soldier in Abadiyah military base of the kingdom’s southwestern region of Jizan.
Hours later, Yemeni snipers shot dead another Saudi soldier in the Alib military base of Najran.