Yemen's Air Defenses with "New Technology" Shoots Down Saudi Jet

A Saudi Tornado multirole fighter jet was shot down by a missile launched by Yemen's advanced air defense system incorporating "new technology."

"The aircraft was shot down with an advanced surface-to-air missile with new technology," Armed Forces spokesman, Brigadier Yahya Sare’e said in a brief statement. He did not, however, divulge any more details regarding the missile.

The warplane was targeted by the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees when it was flying over Al-Jawf Governorate on Friday night. The Saudi Air Force has 72 Interdictor/Strike fighter-bomber Tornados and 48 Air Defense Variant Interceptor Tornados. The fighter can carry smart and cluster bombs, biological weapons such as thermal weapons that leave a trace spanning for 100 years, 2 nuclear bombs, anti-radiation missiles and many conventional bombs.

On Friday, spokesman of the Yemeni armed forces said that "approaching Yemen airspace is prohibited and won't be a picnic place for anyone."

In 2018, Yemen claimed to have shot down a Tornado aircraft and an F-15. Two US-made Saudi drones- MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator, were shot down by Yemeni forces a year later. Yemeni Houtis also claimed to have orchestrated the deadly drone attack on Saudi oil facilities- Abqaiq and Khurais, some of the largest in the world, in mid-September 2019.

A few days later, Yemeni Houtis announced they had carried out a “major assault” on Saudi Arabian-led coalition, claiming to have killed over 200 of their soldiers, other than annihilating a number of their military vehicles. Slowly burning armoured vehicles with Saudi markings and weapons “seized” from Saudi military can be observed in a video footage released by Yemen.

Saudi Arabia led a regional coalition that launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015 to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power after the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement seized power. Some 100,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed and infrastructure destroyed in indiscriminate bombings since then.