SANAA – Yemen’s Houthi rebels have downed Saudi Arabia’s militaryhelicopter in Jizan province in the south-west of the kingdom, a militarysource in the Yemeni Defense Ministry told Sputnik on Thursday, adding thatall crew members have been killed in the crash.

“Air defense of Ansar Allah [Houthi movement] has downed an Apachehelicopter of the Saudi army while it was flying over Jahfan in Jizan[province],” the source said.

All crew members have been killed in the crash, according to the source.

Riyadh has not commented on the issue yet.

The accident took place hours after Houthi militants claimed they hadstruck down an Arab coalition drone on Wednesday night over thesouthwestern Saudi region of Asir.

The attacks occur amid the reported attempts by Yemeni government forcesand the Saudi-led coalition to seize Al-Hudaydah, a strategic stronghold ofthe Houthis linklink>anda key entry point for humanitarian aid. As Yemeni Prime Minister AhmedDaghr stated, cited by Anadolu, the combined troops have already liberated85 percent of the territory seized by the Houthis.

Last week, the spokesman for the Arab coalition reported that SaudiArabia’s air defense forces destroyed a ballistic missile linklink>launchedby Yemeni Houthi rebels over Jizan province, which regularly comes undermissile bombardment of the Houthis. According to Saudi Arabian Envoy to theUnited States Khalid bin Salman, the Houthis had fired 140 missiles atSaudi targets since the start of the military conflict in March 2015.