Saudi Arabia has confirmed that two officers were killed when a National Guard AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter crashed in Najran, attributing the incident to a technical malfunction.
The announcement comes after Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed to have shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter near the Saudi-Yemeni border, raising questions about whether the two accounts refer to the same incident.
According to the Saudi account, the aircraft involved in the fatal crash was an AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter. However, the Houthis identified the aircraft in their claim as an Apache, a different helicopter model.
The discrepancy has left uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of the incident, including whether the reported crash and the Houthi-claimed shootdown were connected.
Saudi authorities have attributed the crash to a technical malfunction, but the cause has not been independently established. Meanwhile, the Houthi claim that their forces brought down a Saudi helicopter remains unverified.
Further details are needed to determine whether the reports describe separate incidents or the same event.
