Saudi fighter jet crashes in northern Yemen Houthi rebels earlier claimed they shot down a military plane belonging to ‘enemy forces’ in the same province.
A Saudi Tornado warplane flies over the Gulf during a training mission [File: Hassan Ammar/AFP]
A Saudi fighter jet has crashed in conflict-torn Yemen, the Riyadh-led military coalition, which has been fighting Houthi rebels in the country, said on Saturday.
The Tornado aircraft came down in northern al-Jawf province during an operation to support Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
On Friday, a spokesman for the Houthi rebel movement, Yahya Saria, said fighters had downed a Tornado jet belonging to “enemy forces” in the same province, according to a statement carried by their broadcaster Al Masirah TV.
The spokesman said the plane was downed with an advanced air-to-ground missile.
No further details were immediately available.
The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen’s conflict in 2015 in support of forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had been forced out by the Houthis.
Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions driven to the brink of famine in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
![A Saudi Tornado warplane flies over the Gulf during a training mission [File: Hassan Ammar/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2020/2/15/848d92dd5ba84221bc18017e21af5ad6_18.jpg "Saudi fighter jet crashes in northern Yemen")