Sanaa: Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels said they shot down a Typhoon fighter jet belonging to a Saudi-led military coalition in northeast of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Friday evening.
“The air defenses of the army and popular forces (Houthi fighters) shot down a Saudi-led coalition Typhoon warplane today (Friday) by a surface-to-air missile in Nehm district northeast of Sanaa,” Xinhua news agency quoted a Houthi military official as saying.
Nehm is about 60 km northeast of Sanaa, where fighting is raging daily between Houthi fighters who control the capital and forces of the Yemeni internationally recognized government backed by warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition.
There were no immediate comments by the Saudi-led coalition over the Houthi claims.
But if confirmed, this fighter jet would be the second plane downed by the Yemeni rebels in less than one month.
On October 1, the Houthis fired a surface-to-air missile and shot down a US-made drone, General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, in north of the capital Sanaa.
The US, which is the main supporter to the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iranian-allied Shia Houthis, admitted losing its fighter aircraft.
Targeting the Eurofighter Typhoon, one of the world’s most advanced swing-role fighters, came few hours after Houthi fighters fired a ballistic missile toward a Saudi military base deep inside the Saudi southern border province of Najran.
The coalition said the missile destroyed a residential compound belonging to a Saudi-owned government company and slightly injured one worker.
IANS