Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have intercepted and targeted the fourth unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition in past week, in retaliation for the alliance’s military aggression against their conflict-stricken country.

An unnamed source in the Yemeni air defense forces told the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni forces and their allies shot down the drone as it was flying in the skies northeast of al-Durayhimi district in the country’s western coastal province of Hudaydah on Thursday evening.

On Sunday, Yemeni air defense forces and fighters from Popular Committees shot down a Saudi-led drone as it was on a reconnaissance mission over al-Sadis area of Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Najran, located 844 kilometers south of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The development came a day after Yemeni air defense forces and their allies downed a drone as it was flying over al-Mazraq area in the Harad district of Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah, located approximately 130 kilometers northwest of Sana’a.

Yemeni army forces and fighters from Popular Committees shot down a spy drone of the Saudi-led military coalition in the skies over Hudaydah on June 21.

The unmanned aerial vehicle was struck with a surface-to-air missile over al-Fazah area in al-Tuhayta district.

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 former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

A child suffering from malnutrition lies on a bed at a treatment center in al-Sabeen Maternal Hospital in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on June 22, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.