Illustrative image, source: the Houthis media wing
On April 25, the Yemeni Air Force, an ally of the Houthis, targeted a headquarters of the Saudi-led coalition in the district of al-Buraiqeh near the coastal city of Aden with a Qasef-2K suicide unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
“The drone hit its target with high accuracy, causing injures and deaths in the ranks of the enemy,” a military source told the al-Masirah TV, and added: “the operation was carried out after monitoring and following the movements of the aggressor’s forces and the mercenaries in the targeted area.”
According to experts, the Qasef-2k is a slightly upgraded copy of the Qasef-1 UAV, which is a direct copy of the Iranian Ababil-2. The new suicide UAV is armed with a heavy high-explosive fragmentation (HE-FRAG) warhead that explodes 20m over the target.
A day earlier, the Yemeni Air Force used a UAV of the same type to target a gathering of the Saudi-led coalition in the Kingdom’s southern province of Asir. Several Saudi soldiers were reportedly killed and injured.
Saudi-led coalition warplanes carried out several airstrikes on alleged UAV manufacturing and operation facilities of the Houthis earlier this month. However, the group’s aerial capabilities were not apparently effected.
