Press TV - A new report has revealed that Yemeni air force and air defense units useda new domestically-designed and-produced missile system to shield residential areas in the countrys capital and the northwestern provinces of Sanaa and Saada against airstrikes by Saudi military aircraft.
Yemens Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported that Yemeni air defense forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, employed the system to intercept and target a twin-engine, all-weather tactical F-15 fighter jet belonging to the RoyalSaudi Air Force in the skies over Sanaa early on January 8.
The development came only hours after Yemeni air defense forces used another battery of the same missile defense system to shoot down a twin-engine and multirole PanaviaTornadocombat aircraftas it was flying in the skies over Kitaf wa al-Boqe'e district in Saada province.
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This picture released by Yemens Joint Operations Command Center shows the remains of a Saudi Panavia Tornado combat aircraft after Yemeni air force units and their allies shot it down in the skies over the northwestern city of Saada on January 7, 2018. (Photo by Yemens al-Masirah television network)[/caption]At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabias military campaign against Yemen in 2015. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.
Nearly dozen civilians killed as Saudi jets hit outdoor market
Meanwhile, nearly a dozen civilians have lost their lives when Saudi fighter jets carried out an airstrike in Yemens Saada province.
Local source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military aircraft bombarded a popular outdoor market in the Kitaf wa al-Boqe'e district of the province on Wednesday evening, leaving 10 people killed and one person injured.
The Saudi-led war has also triggered deadly epidemics of infectious diseases, especially diphtheria and cholera, across Yemen.
According to the World Health Organizationslatest tally, the cholera outbreak has killed 2,167 people since the end of April and is suspected to have infected 841,906.
WHO has also warned that at least 471 people in Yemen have contracted diphtheria, a bacterial disease that has been killing one in 10 Yemenis since the outbreak started in the war-torn country in mid-August last year.
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Smoke rises as people inspect damage at the site of Saudi airstrikes in the city of Saada, Yemen, on January 6, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)[/caption]The UN agencys spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, made the disturbing announcement lastThursday, adding that the west-central province of Ibb and the western province of Hudaydah were the hardest hit by diphtheria, which is easily spread between people through direct physical contact or the air.
On November 26, the United Nations childrens agency (UNICEF) said that more than 11 million children in Yemen were in acute need of aid, stressing that it was estimated that every 10 minutes a child died of a preventable disease there.
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Boys eat bread they collected from a garbage dump on the outskirts of the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, Yemen, on January 7, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)[/caption]Additionally, the UN has described the current level of hunger in Yemen as unprecedented, emphasizing that 17million people are now food insecure in the country.
It added that 6.8 million, meaning almost one in four people, do not have enough food and rely entirely on external assistance.
