Houthis release video of Saudi AH-6i helicopter being hit

Footage released by Yemen’s Houthis appears to show a Saudi National Guard AH-6i helicopter being struck by a loitering munition over Saudi Arabia’s Najran province, after the Saudi-led coalition said the aircraft crashed because of a technical malfunction, killing its two crew members.

Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said on Oct. 18 that the AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter, which belonged to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of National Guard, crashed and was destroyed inside Saudi territory in the Najran area, near the border with Yemen. Both officers on board were killed. The coalition did not identify them or give further details.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree had said a day earlier that the group shot down a Saudi helicopter, which he described as an Apache, near Najran while it was attacking Houthi positions along the border. Al-Maliki responded on social media with a photo of a row of Apache helicopters, writing that the Houthis claimed to have shot one down but that it would enter the battlefield soon.

The video the Houthis later published appears to show a small helicopter consistent with the AH-6i being hit in flight. The weapon in the footage appears to be an Iranian-designed loitering munition from the 358 family, which the Houthis field under the name Saqr.

The 358 is a small, jet-powered surface-to-air loitering munition. Launched from a rail, it can circle over an area, search for low, slow targets such as helicopters and drones, and detonate near them. Iranian-made 358 components have been found in weapons shipments to the Houthis intercepted at sea, and the group has used the munition against drones over Yemen.

The AH-6i is a light attack and reconnaissance helicopter built by Boeing and based on the MH-6 Little Bird used by U.S. special operations forces. It carries a crew of two and can be armed with machine guns, rockets and guided missiles. The Saudi Arabian National Guard ordered about two dozen of the helicopters from the United States in the mid-2010s and uses them for reconnaissance and close air support.

Najran has come under repeated Houthi drone and missile attacks in recent weeks as fighting between the coalition and the Yemen-based group escalated. A week before the crash, Houthi strikes killed 13 people at Riyadh’s international airport, the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.