NAJRAN Oct 18, 2026 – A Saudi National Guard reconnaissance helicopter crashed in the Najran region on Sunday, killing its two-member crew, the Saudi-led coalition said.
Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, said the AH-6i aircraft went down due to a technical malfunction. The helicopter belonged to the Ministry of National Guard and crashed inside Saudi territory in the southwestern Najran region, near the border with Yemen.
Al-Maliki described the two dead crew members as officers and offered condolences to their families. No further details on the circumstances of the technical failure were released.
The incident occurred amid heightened tensions along the Saudi-Yemeni border. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed on Saturday that the group had shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter near Najran while it was conducting operations against Houthi positions. Al-Maliki rejected the claim, posting images of operational helicopters of the same type and stating that the aircraft would soon return to the battlefield.
Najran has come under repeated Houthi drone and missile attacks in recent weeks as fighting between the Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned group has intensified. The Yemen conflict has drawn in broader regional tensions involving the United States and Iran.
Saudi authorities have not indicated whether the crashed AH-6i was the same aircraft referenced in the Houthi claim.
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