Did Yemen Rebels Shoot Down an F-15 Fighter Jet?
The civil war in Yemen appears to have claimed an American-made F-15 Eagle fighter. Over the weekend, Houthi rebels released a video in which they claim to have shot down a Panavia Tornado fighter, but later changed their story to an F-15. In response, the Saudi government reported the loss of a “twin seater fighter jet” to a “technical malfunction.
The truth of the matter will be hard to get to in this case, with multiple sides spinning their own versions of the story.
On Monday, January 8, Saudi Arabia’s state media reported that a “twin-seater fighter jet” of the Royal Saudi Air Force was lost over Yemen. Colonel Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Arab Coalition Forces Command, announced that the two person crew of a Saudi fighter jet had been rescued uninjured while on a mission to “support legitimacy in Yemen.” The Saudis claimed the aircraft had suffered a “technical failure.”
