Saudi soldiers stand on top of armor vehicles, on the border with Yemen at a military point in Najran, Saudi Arabia
Shiite rebels in Yemen claimed yesterday to have shot down a Moroccan F-16 fighter jet taking part in a Saudi-led coalition targeting them and their allies, just a day before a five-day humanitarian cease-fire was set to begin.
Morocco’s military, however, only would say that the jet had gone missing around 6 p.m. Sunday.
The purported downing of the jet fighter came as a Saudi-owned news channel, al-Hadath, aired live footage of tanks and armored personnel carriers loaded onto giant trucks, saying they were part of a “strike force” deploying to the kingdom’s border with Yemen. There have been no signs to suggest that a ground offensive was imminent, although the coalition has not ruled one out.
Photos purporting to show the wreckage of the Moroccan aircraft on social media networks had armed tribesmen and children posing next to wreckage that bore the North African kingdom’s national colors of red and green. A corpse also was seen.
A video clip also posted on social media purported to show a reporter from the rebels’ mouthpiece television station al-Maseera visiting the site of the crash in the northern Saada province and tribesmen posing with parts of plane’s fuselage or triumphantly punching the air with their fisted hands. “This plane was downed by God,” shouted one tribesman.
It was al-Maseera that first claimed the downing of the aircraft in Saada, birthplace and stronghold of the movement of the rebels known as Houthis. Saada also borders Saudi Arabia.
The rebels and their allies in Yemen’s splintered armed forces routinely fire anti-aircraft guns at warplanes launching strikes in the country since the Saudi-led campaign began March 26.
Morroco’s state news agency MAP, citing a military statement, said the pilot of a second jet said he didn’t see the pilot of the missing fighter eject. The military said it had launched an investigation into the incident, without elaborating on a cause.
Morocco has six F-16 jets stationed in the United Arab Emirates taking part in the Saudi-led coalition, which includes a group of other Sunni Arab countries. The West says regional Shiite power Iran backs the Houthis militarily, something both the Islamic Republic and the rebels deny.
The raging conflict in Yemen has killed over 1,400 people — many of them civilians — since March 19, according to the United Nations. The cease-fire, scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. today, would help ease the suffering of civilians in the Arab world’s poorest country, who have endured shortages of power, water, food and medicine as a result of a Saudi-led naval, air and land blockade. Ahmed-Al Haj, Sana’a, AP
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