Yemeni air defenses downed on Tuesday a United States drone MQ-9 in Dhamar governorate, southeast of the capital, Sanaa.
Yemeni armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced late Tuesday that the revolutionary forces managed to down a US drone in Dhamar governorate.
Saree said the Yemeni forces used a local-made missile to target the drone, adding that more details on the operation to be announced soon, as quoted by Al-Massirah TV channel.
Meanwhile, Reuters news agency quoted a statement by the US military’s Central Command as saying: “We are aware of reporting that a US MQ-9 was shot down over Yemen. We do not have any further information to provide at this time.”
Earlier in June, Yemeni forces also downed a US drone of the same type in the Western Coast.
The MQ-9 Reaper is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF). It was operated by US forces to hit targets in Afghanistan.
Yemen has been since March 2015 under brutal aggression by Saudi-led Coalition, in a bid to restore control to fugitive Hadi who is Riyadh’s ally.
Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have been killed or injured in the strikes launched by the coalition, with the vast majority of them are civilians.
The coalition, which includes in addition to Saudi Arabia and UAE: Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Kuwait, has been also imposing a harsh blockade against Yemenis.
Source: Al-Massirah and Reuters
