Yemeni General: Army Shot Down Coalition Plane Over Saudi Soil for 1st Time
19:23 29.07.2017(updated 21:11 29.07.2017)
A representative of the Yemeni Army, brigadier general Aziz Rashid, told Sputnik about an incident involving a reconnaissance aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition that took place on July 25.
The general claimed that the army had shot down a plane on the territory of Saudi Arabia in the administrative district of Najran near the border with Yemen.
According to Rashid, the Yemeni Army managed "to restore its radar warning station" and can now efficiently detect the Arab coalition's aircrafts.
"This made it possible to effectively detect the coalition's jets even at low altitudes, what greatly limits the capabilities of the enemy. This is a big leap for the Yemeni Army," Rashid said.
He also noted that this is not the first military operation of its kind. Earlier, the Yemeni Army had shot down 15 foreign helicopters flying over the territory of Yemen.
However, this time the plane was shot down over the territory of Saudi Arabia, Rashid stressed.
"We had managed to collect the debris of the downed aircraft and received a lot of information obtained by the scout. They include pictures identifying the location of the military forces on the territory of Yemen and a map of planned attacks on our positions," Rashid concluded.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015. Over the past two years, the Saudi Air Force has been involved with its Gulf Cooperation Council allies in airstrikes against Houthis in the country.
Since then the humanitarian situation in Yemen has worsened dramatically. The campaign has inflicted an estimated 10,000 civilian deaths, according to UN humanitarian officials.
© Sputnik
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