SANA’A: Yemen’s air force has been the target of “sabotage”, the country’s military aviation chief said in a televised interview, days after a fighter jet crashed in the capital Sana’a.
“The air force is the target of systematic sabotage,” General Rashed Al Janad told the private channel Al Saida in the interview broadcast late on Friday.
He said the Sukhoi SU-22 that crashed in Sanaa last Monday, killing the pilot, was caused by “shots hitting the aircraft” as it prepared to land at a base next to the capital’s airport.
“The black box of the aircraft was hit” in the attack, he said without giving further details. He quoted witnesses as saying the jet had exploded 50 metres above the ground.
The air force said it would open an investigation into the crash, the second time a Sukhoi jet has crashed over the capital since the start of the year.
On February 19, a Yemeni air force jet crashed into a residential area of Sana’a, killing 12 people, including the pilot.
Janad said an Antonov M26 that came down north of Sanaa in November 2012 “had also been hit by shots that caused a fire in one of its engines”.
He added that two other military aircraft, including a helicopter, had been fired on last November near Sanaa, although they had not been hit.
On Wednesday, an army helicopter carrying Transport Minister Ahmad bin Dagher had to make an emergency landing in the central Bayda province after it was shot at three times, Janad said in the interview, adding that security forces had arrested 12 men over the attack.
But Janad said these acts of “sabotage” took on a new dimension with the explosion on May 6 of two refuelling vehicles at Al Anad air base in southern Yemen, the largest in the country. “The aim was to blow up the base’s fuel store, but the fire was quickly brought under control,” he said.
AFP
