(Photo credit: Ansarallah resistance movement media bureau)
On 30 January, the spokesperson for the Yemen Armed Forces Brigadier General, Yahya Saree, announced that a US-made ScanEagle spy drone belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition was shot down on 29 January, while flying over Juba district in Marib province.
تمكنت دفاعاتنا الجوية بفضل الله من إسقاط طائرة تجسسية نوع (سكان إيغل Scan Eagle) أمريكية الصنع، بسلاح مناسب وذلك أثناء قيامها بأعمال عدائية مساء أمس السبت في أجواء مديرية الجوبة بمحافظة مأرب.
— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) January 30, 2022
Saree said the drone was carrying out a ”hostile operation” in an area that is under the control of the Yemeni army.
The drone is one of many that have been shot down by the Yemeni military in recent months across the country.
The Yemeni army’s locally built aerial defense systems have proved to be much more superior to the expensive drones that the Saudi-led coalition acquires from US, Chinese and Turkish military contractors.
Some of the drones that have been shot down include the General Atomics manufactured MQ-9 Reaper drones which cost more than $10 million each.
Most of the drones have been shot down in the provinces of Marib and Shabwa. The two provinces have in recent weeks witnessed fierce battles between the Yemeni armed forces and the so-called Giants Brigades, a UAE-backed militia.
On 29 January, a Yemeni army ballistic missile hit a camp housing members of the Giants Brigades in Usaylan district in Shabwa province killing dozens of UAE-backed fighters.
تمكنت القوة الصاروخية بفضل الله من إستهداف تجمع كبير لمرتزقة ودواعش الإمارات في مديرية عسيلان بمحافظة شبوة بصاروخ بالستي وكانت الإصابة دقيقة
نتج عن الإستهداف مصرع وإصابة أكثر من 40 مرتزقا بينهم قادة وتدمير عدد من الآليات.— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) January 29, 2022
The incident happened a few hours after the Giants Brigade issued statement claiming that they had successfully pushed the Yemen army out of the province and would subsequently be withdrawing from the area to focus on other battle fronts.
Yemen has been gripped by a seven-year long conflict that broke out in January 2015 when Saudi-Arabia, alongside its allies and with the support of the US government, invaded the impoverished country with the aim of destroying the Ansarallah resistance movement and restoring the government of former Saudi-backed president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
The war has killed more than 230,000 people, directly and indirectly, through diseases caused by the lack of proper access to health services and clean water due to airstrikes on hospitals and water wells by the Saudi-led coalition.