Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Monday that three people were killed in the country’s capital when a drone aircraft crashed in a neighborhood after being shot down.
In a statement, the Houthis said that their air defense system downed the surveillance drone and that it belonged to the Saudi-led coalition with which they are at war. The Houthi claims could not be immediately verified.
A spokesman for the coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Video from the scene showed what appeared to be a damaged pilotless aircraft in a street surrounded by security forces and onlookers.
There is a truce in place in the war-torn country that is set to expire at the beginning of June. United Nations officials, who helped broker the cease-fire, have said they hoped it could be extended.
The truce is the first nationwide cease-fire in six years in Yemen’s civil war, which erupted in 2014. That year, the Iranian-backed Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the government to power.
Source: Voice of America