Yemeni Air Defense Systems Repel Saudi-led Aerial Attack near Sana’a: Army Spox

Local Editor

The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, says the country’s air defense units have managed to thwart a Saudi-led airstrike against a strategic district east of the capital Sana'a.

Saree said on Saturday that a squadron of Saudi and Emirati fighter jets sought to bombard residential areas in Nihm district, located 40 kilometers east of Sana'a, when the domestically-built and long-range Fater-1 (Innovator-1) surface-to-air missile defense system intercepted the jets and forced them off the Yemeni airspace.

The high-ranking Yemeni military official further noted that the country's armed forces will unveil new domestically-designed and -developed air defense systems on Sunday.

On Tuesday, the spokesman for Yemen’s Air Force, Major General Abdullah al-Jafri, praised the recent interception and targeting of a Tornado multi-role combat aircraft of the Royal Saudi Air Force in the country’s northern al-Jawf province, stressing that 2020 will be the year of Yemeni air defense systems that will change the course of battles against the Saudi-led coalition.

He told Arabic-language Mirat al-Jazeera news website in an exclusive interview that the downing of the Tornado jet confirms beyond any doubt that 2020 will be the year of modern and advanced air defense systems that can track, damage or shoot down enemy aircraft.

Jafri also echoed earlier remarks by Saree that Yemen’s missile units have managed to reach high levels of advanced military capability to down hostile fighter jets.

Moreover, 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, in retaliation for the alliance’s military aggression against their conflict-stricken country.

The media bureau of the Ansarullah movement, citing an unnamed military source, reported that Yemeni air defense forces shot down the drone with a precision-guided missile as it was flying in the skies over al-Khoba area in Saudi Arabia’s southern border region of Jizan, situated 966 kilometers south of the capital Riyadh, on Saturday evening.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a 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.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team

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