Yemeni Air Forces Shoot Down Saudi Spy Drones

Date: 06 December 2019 - 21:57

News ID: ۷۳۵۵۲

SANAA (Dispatches) – Yemeni forces have intercepted and shot down three surveillance drone belonging to the Saudi military coalition, flying in the skies over the border of the southwestern Saudi region of Jizan in two days.
The third unmanned aerial vehicle was downed with a precision-guided missile over the Jahfan area of the region on Thursday, the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network said.
The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, earlier said in a statement that Yemeni forces and their allies shot down Saudi reconnaissance spy drones on Wednesday.
"One spy drone was shot down near the border of the southwestern Saudi region of Jizan, while the other drone was downed near the southern Saudi region of Asir,” the statement read.
The operations were the latest in Yemen’s retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia over its war on the impoverished country.
A Yemeni maritime official said the Saudi-led coalition impounded more than a dozen ships carrying energy derivatives and food destined for the conflict-plagued and impoverished Arab country, despite the fact the vessels had earlier acquired necessary permits from the United Nations.
The unnamed official at Hudaydah port told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network on Wednesday that 13 ships have been marooned at the port of Jizan in southwestern Saudi Arabia.
He added that the vessels had undergone inspection by the United Nations and obtained the relevant papers.
In another development on the country, Sudan’s new Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok vowed to withdraw troops from the Saudi-led war in Yemen, saying his country’s role should be limited to assisting in a political resolution of the conflict.
"The conflict in Yemen has no military solution, whether from us or from anywhere in the world,” Hamdok told the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based think tank, on Thursday.
He added that the war "has to be resolved through political means,” and that his country will seek to "help our brothers and sisters in Yemen and play our role with the rest to help them address this”.
Sudan has been one of the main contributors to the so-called Saudi coalition against Yemen, formed in 2015 in a bid to install a pro-Saudi government in Sana’a and crush Yemen’s Houthi Ansarllah movement.
According to reports, up to 40,000 Sudanese troops were deployed in the country during the peak of the conflict in 2016-2017.