Houthi fighters 'down Saudi helicopter'

Yemen's Houthi fighters say they have shot down a Saudi helicopter as the Saudi foreign minister denies that Riyadh is being involved in a military offensive in Yemen.

A Houthi spokesman says the chopper crashed near Al-Khouba on the Saudi-Yemeni border. Al-Khouba is a border city in the Saudi Province of Jizan.

The development comes as Tehran took a swipe at Saudi Arabia for its violent military offensive against the civilians in northern Yemen. "Saudi Arabia was expected to mediate in Yemen's internal conflict as an older brother and restore peace to the Muslim states, rather than launching military strike[s] and pounding bombs on Muslim civilians in the north of Yemen," said Iranina President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, however, denied any Saudi involvement whatsoever in military attacks against the Yemeni Shia fighters, known as the Houthis. "I don't know where he (Ahmadinejad) got this accusation ... that the kingdom is waging war on the Houthis," al-Faisal said in Riyadh.

He added that even the Houthis don't say such a thing. "The real accusation is that Iran is the one that meddles in Yemen's internal affairs."

Meanwhile, it has been reported that at least 15 civilians were killed in the latest Saudi airstrikes in Yemen on Friday.
PressTV