Yemen’s Air Defense Units Shoo Away Saudi, Emirati Jets near Sana’a

Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on Saturday that Yemen’s air defense units used the domestically-built and long-range Fater-1 (Innovator-1) surface-to-air missile defense system to force a squadron of Saudi and Emirati fighter jets off the Yemeni airspace+

The warplanes sought to bombard residential areas in Nihm district, located 40 kilometers east of Sana'a, he added, according to Press TV.

The high-ranking Yemeni military official further noted that the country's armed forces will unveil new domestically-designed and -developed air defense systems on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past nearly five years.

The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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