A Moroccan plane was downed in the Saada province this week, with Yemen's Houthi fighters claiming responsibility for the attack.
The Houthi-run television station al-Masirah said Monday that tribesmen shot down the F-16 jet near the Saudi border but did
not reveal the pilot's fate, The Washington Post reported.
"One of the craft was hit and went into a spin," the French-language website Le360 reported, stating that the downed F-16 was part of a two-airplane patrol that was fired upon from a mountain range about 6,000-feet high, according to The Post.
Media reports in Yemen also capture footage of what appeared to be debris from an airplane in the area.
If confirmed, the downed Moroccan plane would be the first jet lost by the Saudi-led coalition since its airstrikes in Yemen began on March 26, noted The Post. A Saudi fighter crashed off Yemen's southern coast in late March but technical problems were reportedly responsible for that mishap.
The pilot and co-pilot from that downed plane were recused by a navy vessel.
Morocco is part of a 10-nation coalition that is fighting Houthi militants, who are allegedly
supported by Iran, the BBC News reported. The coalition has been fighting with the Yemen army in order to restore exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to power.
Morocco's squadrons have been flying out of airbases in the United Arab Emirates, which had also assisted in the fight against the Islamic State rebels in Syria and Iraq, noted the BBC News.
While the coalition continued its attack in the air, al-Hadath, a Saudi news channel, reported that tanks and armored personnel carriers were gathering on the Saudi-Yemen border as part of a "strike force," even though there has been an announced plan for a ground
invasion into Yemen, according to The Guardian.
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