Rabat - The Moroccan pilot whose F-16 warplane crashed in northern Yemen is reportedly alive and under protection of a Sunni tribe, according to news site Rassd.
A lieutenant from the Saudi-led coalition told the Yemeni website that 26-year-old Air Force Lieutenant Yassine Bohti Moroccan is in safe hands with the Hamdan tribes allied to the Arab coalition in Ma'rib.
Following the crash of the Moroccan F-16, a special Moroccan commando and a squadron of radar-equipped F-16 warplanes have been reportedly deployed to Yemen to help with the search effort.
Brigadier General Ahmed Al-Assiri from the Saudi-led coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen said on Tuesday that a technical fault or human error might of have caused the crash of the Moroccan F-16 warplane.
"We are definitely sure it was not shot down,” Al-Assiri told Agence France Press, adding that the Moroccan pilot was part of a formation and other fighter jets [which] “did not notice any firing from the ground."
The Iran-backed Houthis had claimed responsibility for the “downing” of the Moroccan warplane last weekend in the Saada region in the north of the country.
On Monday morning, the Royal Armed Forces said in a statement they had lost track of one of the F-16s made at the disposal of the coalition led by Saudi Arabia to restore the legitimacy in Yemen.
The post Moroccan Pilot in Yemen is Alive: Yemeni Source appeared first on Morocco World News.