Yemeni Forces Shoot Down Saudi Typhoon Jet near Capital
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Yemeni air defense forces shot down a Saudi Typhoon fighter and warned Riyadh of 'more surprises' if it continues its aggression on the impoverished Arab country.
Yemeni armed forces said they shot down the Typhoon Royal Air Force (RAF) warplane with a surface-to-air missile as it was flying in the skies over Nihm district east of the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on Friday evening, Saba news agency reported.
"We have the capacity to develop the Yemeni Air Defense and we are willing to (give) more surprises as long as the aggression continues," the Yemeni military chief, General Ibrahim al-Shami, said on Friday.
The general also confirmed that Yemeni forces are changing their air strategy to counter Riyadh, calling on the Saudi regime to "take these advances" seriously.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, versatile, and highly maneuverable fighter, designed and built by the company Eurofighter GmbH. The Saudi air force has purchased about 72 Typhoon units to supplement its air superiority in Yemen.
The downing of the jet came after Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said Riyadh’s aggression against Yemen, which began in March 2015, will continue.
“We’re pursuing until we can be sure that nothing will happen there like Hezbollah again, because Yemen is more dangerous than Lebanon. It’s next to Bab al-Mandab so if something happens there, that means 10 percent of world trade stops. This is the crisis,” he claimed, according to Reuters.
Since March 25, 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Yemen’s Legal Center of Rights and Development recently announced that the Saudi campaign has claimed the lives of over 12,000 Yemenis and left more than 20,000 others wounded.