Oct 18 (Reuters) – A reconnaissance AH-6i helicopter crashed in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia due to a technical malfunction, killing its two crew members, the Saudi-led coalition’s spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said in a statement on Sunday.
The helicopter crashed in an area under the jurisdiction of the Saudi National Guard Ministry, the statement added.
The southwestern area of Najran has been subject to attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis in recent weeks as fighting between the coalition and the Yemen-based militant group escalated, with the Yemen conflict becoming another front in the US-led war with Iran.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a post on X on Saturday that the group had shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter near Najran while it was carrying out what he described as hostile activities targeting Houthi positions along the border.
Al-Maliki commented on Saree’s post on Sunday with a photo of several Apaches lined up saying: “You claim to have shot it down, but it will enter the battlefield soon.”
(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
