SANAA, Aug 15 (NNN-YPA) – Yemen’s Houthi rebels said, they shot down a “U.S.-made spy drone” belonging to the Saudi-led coalition, while it was hovering over their positions, in the central province of Marib yesterday.
“Our forces shot down the spy drone over Medghal district,” Houthi-run al-Masirah TV quoted the Houthi militia spokesman, Yehya Sarea, as saying.
On Thursday, the Yemeni government army, backed by the coalition, recaptured and secured the highway linking Al-Kasarah, about 18 km west of Marib central city, with the northwestern district of Medghal, after deadly battles with the rebels, according to local government military sources.
The Houthis began in Feb, a major offensive on Marib, in an attempt to seize control of the oil-rich province.
The United Nations has warned that the offensive on Marib, which hosts nearly one million internally displaced people, could lead to a major humanitarian catastrophe.
Yemen’s civil war flared up in late 2014, when the Houthi militia seized control of much of the country’s north, and forced the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, out of the capital Sanaa.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition, intervened in the Yemeni conflict in Mar, 2015, to support Hadi’s government.– NNN-YPA
