On November 16, a Qasef-1 armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of the Yemeni Air Force [loyal to the Houthis] carried out a series of airstrikes on a camp of the Saudi-led coalition and its Yemeni proxies in the central province of Ma’rib.
“The aerial operation resulted in accurate hits in the targeted camp … many mercenaries were killed and injured in the operation,” a source in the Yemeni Air Force told the al-Masirah TV.
Contrary to the Yemeni Air Force claims, the Saudi-backed part of the Yemeni military said that the UAV was shot down when it approached the coalition’s camp. According to this report, the UAV was equipped with a camera and armed with four small bombs.
“Our engineer team handed the UAV over to the Arab coalition engineer unit in order to analyze it and identify its source,” the military said.
The Qasef-1 is a copy of the Iranian-made “Ababil-2”, according to a report of the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group. The Houthis used Qasef-1 as a suicide UAV when it was first introduced in 2017. However, the UAV was modified later to carry and drop small-diameter projectiles.
Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
The attack was clearly aimed at pressuring the Saudi-led coalition that’s’ currently attacking the Houthi-held city of al-Hudaydah on the western coast of Yemen.
