Two Saudi Air Force officers died when an AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter crashed in southwestern Najran province, Saudi-led coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki has said. Yemen’s Houthi militants claim they shot it down.
According to the Saudi authorities, the helicopter crashed because of a technical malfunction. Riyadh did not comment on the militant group’s claims.
Separately, the Saudi General Directorate of Civil Defense reported on Sunday that six civilians were injured in a Houthi missile strike on the city of Najran in the same area. Three homes and three vehicles were damaged in the attack, it added.
The militant group, known officially as the Ansar Allah movement, published a video on social networks purporting to show the moment of the strike against the helicopter. The black-and-white clip shows a glowing object being hit with a projectile, resulting in a major explosion. It is unclear whether the object in the video was a helicopter or whether the clip is related to Sunday’s incident.
On Saturday, a Houthi spokesman, Yahya Saree also claimed in a statement on X that the militants shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter near Najran. The post was ridiculed by al-Maliki, who published a photo of several Apaches lined up at an airfield and promised that they “will enter the battlefield soon.”
Najran province borders Yemen and has been targeted in Houthi attacks over recent weeks as violence between the militants and the Saudi-led coalition escalates. A Houthi offensive last month triggered the latest flare up in the civil war, which began in 2014. In a rapid advance, the militants captured the strategic port of Mokha and Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping route connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
The development prompted the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government to launch a counteroffensive to retake the lost territory. The Houthis, an Iranian-backed Shiite group, accused Riyadh of targeting civilians. According to the militants, Saudi forces launched nearly 120 airstrikes in just one day earlier this week. At least 385 people have been killed or wounded by Saudi strikes since September 3, including many women and children, the Houthi health authorities stated.
The group responded by targeting Saudi infrastructure, including civilian airports, using missiles. Last weekend, a strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh left 12 people dead, including four Saudi nationals, and more than 300 injured. Another attack the following day killed a Pakistani national and injured 11 others.
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