Watch: Yemeni forces intercept, shoot down Saudi spy drone in Ma’rib

The media bureau of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah movement released on Friday the video of Yemeni air defense forces intercepting and targeting a CH-4 combat drone with a surface-to-air missile over the Medghal district in the early hours of the day.

The CH-4 drone has a 3,500- to 5,000-kilometer range and a 30- to 40-hour endurance. It is also capable of carrying six missiles and a payload of up to 250 to 345 kilograms.

The unmanned aerial vehicle can fire air-to-ground missile from an altitude of 5,000 meters, therefore it can stay outside the effective range of the most anti-aircraft guns.

This is the fifth Saudi aircraft of the same type to be shot down by the Yemeni forces.

Yemeni air defense forces and their allies reportedly shot down the first CH-4 combat drone on August 29, 2018.

They targeted the second one on January 7, 2020, flying over Yemen's northern province of al-Jawf.

The third and fourth CH-4 drones were intercepted and shot down on December 21 and 23 of the same year as they were on reconnaissance missions over Ma’rib and northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada respectively.

Late on Friday, spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the country's domestically-developed Qasef-2K (Striker-2K) combat drones had targeted sensitive targets inside Abha International Airport and King Khalid Air Base in Saudi Arabia's southwestern region of Asir, which lies 884 kilometers south of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.

According to the UN, 80 percent of Yemen’s 30 million people need some form of aid or protection. About 13.5 million Yemenis currently face acute food insecurity, UN data shows.