Direct proof of use
The clearest public Yemen Civil War evidence for the ZPU-1 is an August 5, 2019 Islamic State-Yemen attack in al-Bayda Governorate. Joshua Koontz's geolocation write-up says ISIS-Y fighters employed a ZPU-1 anti-aircraft gun against Houthi positions at Hamat Baqr, and later identifies the weapon as mounted on an unidentified technical.
The source describes the attack through ISIS-Y photosets and geolocation work rather than through an official battlefield report. It supports a narrow claim: Islamic State-Yemen used a technical-mounted ZPU-1 for direct fire against a Houthi site at Hamat Baqr.
Sources: Hamat Baqr Geolocation
Timeline
Oryx's September 2015 inventory of pre-war Yemeni fighting vehicles listed 14.5 mm ZPU-1 guns among Yemeni Army equipment and said the inventory was intended to clarify military equipment available to Yemeni parties on the battlefield after the Houthi takeover.
By August 2019, at least one ZPU-1 had appeared in an ISIS-Y attack context in al-Bayda. Koontz located the claimed ZPU-1 firing area near Hamat Baqr and identified a Houthi site on the nearby hilltop as the target area.
Sources: Oryx Pre-War Yemeni Fighting Vehicles, Hamat Baqr Geolocation
Narrative
In Yemen, the ZPU-1 appears as a light 14.5 mm anti-aircraft gun adapted to irregular ground combat. WeaponSystems.net describes the ZPU-1 as the single-barrel member of the Soviet ZPU family, built around one KPV heavy machine gun on a two-wheel carriage and usable from technicals.
The documented Hamat Baqr episode fits that technical-mounted role. ISIS-Y was not using the ZPU-1 primarily as a low-altitude air-defense weapon in the cited incident; it was firing at Houthi positions from an improvised vehicle mount in a remote al-Bayda valley.
The sources do not establish a theater-wide count, a supply path to ISIS-Y, or continuous service with one side. They do support ZPU-1 availability in Yemeni wartime stocks and one dated Islamic State-Yemen firing incident during the 2014 Yemen Civil War.
Sources: ZPU-1 WeaponSystems Reference, Oryx Pre-War Yemeni Fighting Vehicles, Hamat Baqr Geolocation
