Yemeni Official Says Saudi Arabia Has No Information on Fate of Downed F-15 Pilots
A Sana’a-based prisoners’ affairs official said Riyadh is seeking information through a third party after Yemen reported bringing down a Saudi fighter over Marib province.
A Sana’a government official said Saudi Arabia is using a third party to seek information about the pilots of an F-15 that Yemeni forces said they shot down over Marib. Yemen also claimed that Saudi F-15 and Typhoon aircraft searching for the wreckage were forced to withdraw. The supplied evidence contains no independent confirmation or details about the pilots’ fate.
A senior Yemeni official in the Sana’a government said Saudi Arabia is seeking information about the fate of the pilots of an F-15 fighter jet that Yemen reported had been shot down several days earlier.
Abdul Qader al-Murtada, head of Yemen’s prisoners’ affairs committee, said Riyadh was pursuing the matter through an intermediary because there is no direct communication channel between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. His comments were reported by Iran’s state news agency IRNA, citing Al-Masirah.
According to al-Murtada, the Saudi effort reflects Riyadh’s interest in obtaining details about what happened to the pilots after the aircraft fell during a military operation. He did not provide information about the pilots’ identities, their condition or whether they were being held by Yemeni forces.
Yemen’s armed forces said on the previous Wednesday that they had brought down a Saudi F-15 over Marib province. In a statement, the forces said the aircraft had been conducting what they described as hostile operations in Marib’s airspace and was supporting Saudi-backed opposing forces. They attributed the downing to a domestically made surface-to-air missile.
The Yemeni military also said it had intercepted a formation of Saudi F-15 and Typhoon fighter jets using locally made missiles. According to the statement, the aircraft were searching for the wreckage of the downed fighter and were forced to withdraw.
The claims about the aircraft being shot down, the search operation and the pilots’ fate were presented in the supplied reporting as statements by Yemeni officials. The evidence does not include an independent confirmation from Saudi authorities or another external source, nor does it establish whether the pilots survived, were captured or remain unaccounted for.