Yemen’s Houthis Shoot Down Saudi Jet With Advanced Surface-To-Air Missile

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

The Saudi News Agency quoted the Arab Coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Malki as saying on Saturday that one of their Tornado fighter jets was shot down over northern Yemen on Friday night.

“At 23:45 P.M. on Friday, February 14, 2020, a Tornado fighter plane of the Royal Saudi Air Force crashed while on a mission of close air support to units of the National Army,” Malki said.

Houthi forces announced on Friday evening that their air defense troops shot down the fighter jet over the Al-Jawf Governorate after it carried out airstrikes on several sites in northern Yemen.

“The air defenses shot down the coalition war plane with an advanced surface-to-air missile supported by modern technology. The sky of Yemen is not for a walk and the enemy must count a thousand time for that,” the Ansarallah-affiliated Yemeni Army (Houthi) spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Sare’a, said on Friday evening.

The Royal Saudi Air Force Tornado aircraft “crashed” in northern al-Jawf province during an operation to support Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on Saturday.

…Separately on Saturday, Al Masirah TV quoted Houthi health officials as saying that at least 30 civilians were killed in coalition air raids in the same region that the plane had gone down.

The death toll could not be independently verified.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, said “Saudi fighter jets have intensified their air strikes” in the area. — Al Jazeera

Yemeni Houthis showed videos as their airdefence forces shot down the Saudi “Tornado” fighter-bomber over Al-Jawf province by new SAM. Saudi Arabia confirmed today, that lost it’s jet there on 23.45 14 Feb 2020. pic.twitter.com/qazcPB0ser

— Yuri Lyamin (@imp_navigator) February 15, 2020

The Houthis released video of the jet’s downing; it appears to show a sophisticated weapon deployed. 

#Yemen 🇾🇪 – Ansarullah released a video showing February 14 downing of a Saudi Tornado fighter jet | #انصار_الله pic.twitter.com/VABkrRfITK

— ً (@zainabiyoun) February 15, 2020

The coalition and the army forces loyal to Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi are seeking to restore areas that they recently lost in the Marib, Sanaa, and Al-Jawf governorates, following a large-scale Ansarallah offensive.