helicopter using ‘new technology’, images available: Spokesman
Sana’a(ANN)-Yemen’s Armed Forces have downed a Saudi Apache helicopter using “new technology” and have filmed the operation, the force’s spokesman has said.
“Yemen’s air defenses have managed to down a Saudi Apache helicopter with a surface-to-air missile using new technology which we will unveil in the near future,” Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced on Friday.
“It was shot down this morning in the Majaza area facing [Saudi Arabia’s] Asir while carrying out hostile operations,” Saree said.
The spokesman added that the helicopter had been fully destroyed and that its two Saudi crew members had been killed.
“The Armed Forces will counter all hostile attempts until complete coverage for Yemen’s airspace can be provided,” he said.
The development comes against the backdrop of a string of major Yemeni military victories in the past months.
Earlier this week, Yemeni forces claimed to have successfully carried out a major drone and ballistic missile attack targeting Mukha port in Yemen’s southern province of Ta’izz.
Some 350 Saudi-led forces were either killed or wounded during the attack, Saree said at the time.
Late September, Yemeni forces declared the conclusion of a major military offensive targeting Saudi-led forces in the kingdom’s southern border region of Najran, killing at least 200 enemy troops and capturing another 2,000, according to officials.
Two weeks earlier, Yemeni forces bypassed the oil-rich kingdom’s foreign supplied air defenses and launched a highly successful attack on two Saudi oil facilities, temporarily halting more than half of the country’s oil production.
Reports have since emerged showing that Riyadh has been seeking to negotiate an end to what has turned into a “quagmire” for the kingdom.
The US has also been reportedly reaching out to Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah Movement in a bid to assist Riyadh and work a way out of the conflict.
Earlier this month, Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs for the United Arab Emirates which has been Saudi Arabia’s top ally in the war in Yemen, said that the Houthis “will have a role in the future of Yemen”.
The developments mark a major reversal on the four-year-long Saudi-led mission which was launched in a bid to crush the Houthi movement and install a pro-Saudi government in Sana’a.
The UAE has effectively withdrawn a large bulk of its troops from Yemen.
Last week, United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths claimed that Saudi airstrikes in Yemen had dramatically decreased by 80 percent.
He said that the decrease came after Yemen voluntarily pledged to cease drone and missile attacks against the Saudi kingdom following the successful September oilfield attack.
The claim, however, has been disputed by Yemeni officials who say Riyadh continues with the airstrikes despite Yemen’s voluntary measure.
Source: Presstv.