Yemen's Houthis claim downing Saudi helicopter on border

Yemen's dominant Houthi group said its forces on Thursday shot down a Saudi military Apache helicopter inside the Saudi border region of Najran, the group-controlled state Saba news agency reported.

"The defense air force of the national army and popular forces fired a guided-missile toward the enemy Apache helicopter while flying over the border area, hitting and downing the Apache accurately," Saba quoted an unnamed military spokesman as saying.

The agency also cited the Houthi-allied military official as saying that "the operation occurred when the Saudi aggression Apache hit the (Houthi-allied) Yemeni army and popular forces' sites inside the (Saudi) region."

The report provided no further details, and the Saudi-led military coalition has yet to comment on the report.

Meanwhile, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency also reported that "two Yemeni civilians were killed and four others wounded when the US- Saudi aggression fighter jets waged two air strikes on Hamadan district northwest of the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Thursday."

On Dec. 24, the Saudi-led air strikes killed at least seven children and two women when the fighter jets targeted their home in Yemen's southwestern province of Ibb, according to rescuers and residents of the area.

Houthi fighters have been fighting Saudi Arabia on borders since the Saudi-led military coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict since March 2015 via an air campaign.

The campaign is attempting to restore power to expelled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Some 10,000 Yemenis have been killed, with three millions displaced.

source: Xinhua