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Saudi fighter plane crashes in Yemen

January 8, 2018 at 12:23 pm

File photo of a fighter jet of the Royal Saudi Air Force [Qatar Tribune/Facebook]

Saudi Arabia has confirmed that its fighter plane crashed over Yemen’s Saada governorate at 15:40 local time (12:40 GMT) yesterday due to what it claimed was a technical failure, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

“The Arab Coalition Forces Command implemented a private joint operation to evacuate two pilots in participation of air and land forces where the two pilots were evacuated into the Kingdom’s territories,” Colonel Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Joint Coalition Forces, said.

However, Houthi air defence forces announced that they had shot down the jet in Kataf directorate, Al-Masirah reported.

The incident comes off the back of an offensive by the Yemen National Army in Hudaydah, south of the governorate, which holds a strategic port controlled by the Houthi group.

Read: Saudi-led coalition says has cut Houthi supply line

Saudi Arabia was invited by internationally recognised President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to lead a coalition of Arab states to neutralise threats by the Houthi group in 2015. Saudi Arabia pays mercenary groups in Yemen, including Sudanese forces, to battle the Houthis across the country.

Amid conflict since 2014, Yemen endures a tragic humanitarian crisis which has seen nearly one million cases of cholera and some 500 cases of diphtheria in Yemen according to the World Health Organisation.

According to UN officials, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the war, while more than 11 per cent of the country’s population has been displaced.