UAE Says 2 Pilots Killed in Military Plane Crash over Yemen


UAE Says 2 Pilots Killed in Military Plane Crash over Yemen

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - United Arab Emirates says two of its pilots were killed when their military plane crashed due to “technical failure” during an operation in Yemen.

Major Pilot Ali Al Mesmari and First Lieutenant Pilot Badr Al Marasheda were killed as a result of the accident, which was caused by a technical fault, the General Command of the UAE Armed Forces said.

Last month, pilot Captain Khalid Mohammad Al Shehi died when his aircraft crashed due to what the UAE said was a technical failure.

In August, four Emirati servicemen were killed when the helicopter they were in crashed in Yemen.

A further three, including Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the grandson of the country's founding father, who had served with the elite Presidential Guard, were injured.

Emirati forces are part of a Saudi-led coalition that began bombing Yemen in March 2015. More than 100 Emirati soldiers have died in the war, which is the deadliest in the UAE’s nearly 46-year history.

Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah Movement on many occasions called on the UAE to reconsider its position on Yemen and leave the Saudi-led coalition that has killed thousands of civilians in the impoverished Arab country.

The Saudi-led coalition has been launching deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement for over two an half years in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The war has devastated Yemen, killing more than 10,000 people, with some 7 million facing the threat of famine and 460,000 children severely malnourished. Cholera has killed more than 2,100 people.

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