Saudi Arabia has is a regional "puppet" of the United States, an American analyst says, arguing that Washington needs Riyadh as part of its grand plan for global domination.

The United States will continue backing the Saudi-led war on Yemen, says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, despite a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country and outrage over the kingdom in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

A UK-based charity says more than 84,700 children under the age of five may have starved to death in Yemen since the Saudi regime and a coalition of its allies launched a brutal war on the already-impoverished nation over three years ago.

Yemeni air defense units have shot down a Saudi reconnaissance drone in flight over a border area in the kingdom’s southwestern province of Jizan.

Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military aggression against the Yemeni city of Hudaydah has put thousands of children at risk of death, starvation and disease, says an activist group.