Yemen Army Downs US RQ20 Spy Drone over Jizan: Spokesman (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The air defenses of the Yemeni army on Sunday shot down a US RQ20 spy drone over Jizan region, south of Saudi Arabia, the Arab country’s Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said.
“The air defenses managed to shoot down an US RQ20 drone in the airspace of Haradh district off Jizan by an appropriate weapon,” A spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Gen. Saree said in a statement, according to al-Masirah.
The AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma is a small, battery powered, American hand-launched unmanned aircraft system produced by AeroVironment based in California. Primary mission is surveillance and intelligence gathering using an electro-optical and infrared camera.
Yemeni forces have managed to down numerous US-made drones in recent years, notably destroying a US-operated advanced MQ-9 Reaper attack drone in August 2019.
The US has been a major backer of Saudi Arabia ever since it formed a military coalition campaign against Yemen in March 2015 in a bid to bring the government of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) published says that 100,000 civilians have been killed since the onset of the conflict.
