The Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels says one of its reconnaissance helicopters has crashed on Saudi Arabian territory. Two crew members have died in this.
This information was given by issuing a statement from the alliance. The AH-6I reconnaissance helicopter crashed due to a “technical fault” in the southwestern Nazran region, it reported on social media platform X.
The coalition further said that “two crew officers lost their lives in this incident.” At the same time, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed that they have shot down an Apache helicopter of Saudi Arabia in Najran. On Saturday, Houthi Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saria issued a statement on social media platform X giving this information. Houthi claimed to have shot down another aircraft in the early hours of Sunday.
Saria said in her social media post that our armed forces shot down an armed ‘Karar’ reconnaissance aircraft of the Saudi enemy. The plane was passing through the airspace of Hodeidah Governorate. It also claimed that it was the fourth aircraft of this type to be shot down since the recent tensions began, and the seventh since it entered Yemeni airspace.
Meanwhile, Saudi-led forces say they have launched attacks on several targets around Yemen’s Taiz city in a bid to break the Houthi siege. The city has become a new front in the ongoing war between Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Houthi fighters.
Citing state media, Al Jazeera reported that Yemen’s forces (linked to the internationally recognized government) say that eight of their soldiers have been killed in the southern province of Lahij. In a statement posted on Facebook, the government-affiliated Tur al-Bahah military front said the “heroes” were martyred in the fighting on the al-Maqtirah front.
No further information has been given in this regard. Following the announcement, Yemeni government forces claimed to have killed 12 Houthi fighters in the al-Akrud area of southern Taiz.