Moroccan F-16 Downed in Yemen

The Royal Moroccan Air Force says that it has lost one its F-16 fighter jets participating in a Saudi Arabia-led bombing campaign in Yemen.

Reuters reports that media outlets affiliated with the Houthi rebels the Saudi coalition is targeting released footage of wreckage that appeared to belong to a crashed F-16. The media reports said the jet was brought down by members of a tribe sympathetic to the Houthi cause.

The Associated Press reports that the plane went down sometime around 6 p.m. May 10. The pilot of a second F-16 that was flying alongside the downed aircraft said that he did not see the pilot of the downed plane eject.

A separate Reuters report says that the downing of the aircraft comes at a time of newly intense clashes between the Saudi military and the Houthis, who have been exchanging rocket and artillery fire across the joint Saudi-Yemen border.

The increase in intensity in those exchanges had already narrowed the likelihood of a humanitarian ceasefire that was scheduled to take effect May 12. The downing of the Moroccan jet makes the ceasefire even more unlikely.

Saudi launched the campaign against the Houthi rebels because of their relationship to Iran. The Saudis fear an Iranian foothold on the Arabian peninsula because the believe it would allow the Iranians to destabilize the region by providing support to peninsula's marginalized Shia populations.

The chaos in Yemen has allowed terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State to establish checkpoints and make territorial gains, as the Saudis have concentrated their efforts on the Houthis rather than these other groups.

In addition to Morocco, the Saudis have been joined in their campaign by Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, and Egypt.