SANAA (Dispatches) – Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement have shot down a Saudi helicopter near the border with Saudi Arabia, Yahya Sarea, the group's military spokesman, says.
"Yemeni air defenses have been able, thanks to God, to shoot down a Saudi Apache aircraft with a new surface-to-air missile, which we will reveal later," Sarea said in a statement, as quoted by Yemeni Almasirah media network.
The incident is said to have occurred near the border with the Saudi region of Asir, which borders the northern part of Yemen.
The spokesman added that the helicopter had been fully destroyed and that its two Saudi crew members had been killed.
"The Armed Forces will counter all hostile attempts until complete coverage for Yemen's airspace can be provided," he said.
Earlier this week, Yemeni forces claimed to have successfully carried out a major drone and ballistic missile attack targeting Mukha port in Yemen’s southern province of Ta'izz.
Some 350 Saudi-led forces were either killed or wounded during the attack, Saree said at the time.
Late September, Yemeni forces declared the conclusion of a major military offensive targeting Saudi-led forces in the kingdom’s southern border region of Najran, killing at least 200 enemy troops and capturing another 2,000, according to officials.
Two weeks earlier, Yemeni forces bypassed the oil-rich kingdom's foreign supplied air defenses and launched a highly successful attack on two Saudi oil facilities, temporarily halting more than half of the country's oil production.
Reports have since emerged showing that Riyadh has been seeking to negotiate an end to what has turned into a "quagmire” for the kingdom.
The U.S. has also been reportedly reaching out to Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah Movement in a bid to assist Riyadh and work a way out of the conflict.
Earlier this month, Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs for the United Arab Emirates which has been Saudi Arabia's top ally in the war in Yemen, said that the Houthis "will have a role in the future of Yemen".