12 Saudis die in ‘friendly fire’ helicopter crash in Yemen

A Saudi helicopter came down during military operations in Yemen today, killing the 12 officers aboard, Saudi media reported. A Yemeni defence ministry news website said the cause was friendly fire.

The death toll was one of the largest in a single incident involving Saudi forces since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015.

The official Saudi news agency SPA quoted a statement from the Saudi-led coalition as saying the Black Hawk came down in the Marib province, east of the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a.

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“As a result, four officers and eight non-commissioned officers from the Saudi armed forces were martyred,” it said, adding the possible cause of the crash was under investigation.

But the Yemeni defence ministry’s 26 September news website quoted an officer in Yemen’s military high command as saying the helicopter was shot down five kilometres from its landing spot because of “a technical fault that caused a misreading of the air defence system, which resulted in the destruction of the plane before it landed”.

It provided no details on who fired at the helicopter.

The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the helicopter crashed in an area known as Al-Tadaween, northeast of the Marib provincial capital, and that 13 officers and soldiers had died.