CAIRO (AP) — 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 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 ceasefire, have said they hope 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.
