Yemen's Shi'ite Huthi rebels said May 11 that they shot down a Saudi-led coalition fighter jet, shortly after Morocco said one of its warplanes had gone missing during a mission.
"The air defense of the tribes shot down a warplane over Wadi Nushur, in Saada," the rebels' northern stronghold, Huthi news channel Al-Masirah said, broadcasting images of tribesmen celebrating around the wreckage of a plane.
The television said it was an F-16 fighter jet while the footage showed a Moroccan flag on a broken rudder lying on a rocky patch.
Morocco said contact was lost with the fighter and its pilot at 6 p.m. on May 10, the official MAP news agency reported, citing an armed forces statement.
It is the first coalition aircraft to have been reported missing over Yemen in the more than six-week bombing campaign launched on March 26.
Morocco has deployed a squadron of six F-16s for the operation.
