Two Saudi officers were killed when a Saudi AH-6i helicopter crashed in Najran, the kingdom’s southwestern border region, on Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition announced — an incident Yemen’s Houthis claimed was caused by one of their missiles, an assertion Reuters could not immediately verify.
Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said the AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter, which belonged to the Saudi Ministry of National Guard, went down inside Saudi territory in an area under the ministry’s jurisdiction. He attributed the crash to a technical malfunction and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
FAKTA
- What happened: An AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter crashed in the Najran region of southwestern Saudi Arabia on Sunday, October 18, 2026.
- Casualties: Both crew members — two officers of the Saudi Ministry of National Guard — were killed.
- Coalition’s account: The Saudi-led coalition says the crash was caused by a technical malfunction and that the aircraft went down inside Saudi territory.
- Houthis’ claim: The Iran-aligned Houthi movement says it shot the helicopter down with a missile and released footage on Sunday; Reuters said it could not independently verify the claim.
- Context: The crash comes amid sharply escalated fighting between the coalition and the Houthis, with missile and drone interceptions over Saudi Arabia across the weekend.
Competing claims over the crash
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said 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. On Sunday, the Houthis released footage of what they said was a Saudi AH-6i being brought down by a missile, though the footage did not clearly show the incident and there was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities on the claim.
Al-Maliki responded to Saree’s post on Sunday with a photo of several Apache helicopters lined up, writing: “You claim to have shot it down, but it will enter the battlefield soon.”
Weekend of interceptions in Saudi skies
The crash caps a tense weekend for Saudi air defences. Earlier on Sunday, the coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed two Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Khamis Mushait in the south, along with a drone targeting the Riyadh region. Residents in Riyadh and Khamis Mushait received mobile phone alerts from the General Directorate of Civil Defense warning of a “hostile aerial threat” and urging them to stay indoors and away from windows.
On Saturday, the coalition said it had intercepted four drones over Riyadh, the Eastern Province and southern regions, and destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in Yemen’s Saada governorate.
Najran: a frontline border region
Najran, in the kingdom’s southwest near the border with Yemen, has been repeatedly targeted by Houthi attacks in recent weeks as fighting between the coalition and the Yemen-based group escalated. The Yemen conflict has become another front in the wider US-led confrontation with Iran, and the violence has reignited since July after years of relative calm.
On Saturday, Egypt’s president said he would seek parliament’s backing to defend Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks, a sign of how far regional alarm has spread. More Middle East and world coverage is available on Watan News World.
