Abu Dhabi: Arab coalition forces in Yemen, with the help of the UAE Air Force, have destroyed an Iranian military drone in the northern port city of Mocha in Yemen, a Yemeni military source has said.
The drone was positioned on a mobile launching platform and intended to target Yemeni forces participating in the liberation of Mocha and the city’s port when it was neutralised.
General Ahmad Saif Al Yafei, deputy chief of general staff of the Yemeni armed forces, said that Yemeni forces detected the aircraft during surveillance to areas north of Mocha, adding that the aircraft was about to take off for its mission when it was destroyed by an air-to-surface missile in coordination with the UAE Air Force operating in Yemen.
He said that cornered rebel militias have resorted to using weapons smuggled from Iran to Yemen and that the unmanned aircraft was part of such clandestine weapons shipments.
He also stressed that the presence of such Iranian weapons in Yemen clearly show the blatant Iranian interference in Yemen’s crisis and attempts made by Tehran to destabilise the region and threaten peace in Yemen.
Supply of sophisticated weapons and equipment to rebel militias by Iran is a desperate attempt to undermine the successive victories of forces that support the legitimate government of Yemen backed by the Arab coalition.
General Al Yafei called on the international community to take on its shoulders the responsibility of foiling Iranian attempts to exacerbate the worsening internal security situation in Yemen.
He added that Iran is trying to eliminate any chance for the success of the political process in Yemen and continuing to stoke the crisis in the country in an attempt to impose its sinister agenda and create a model similar to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in Yemen.
