Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed on Wednesday that its forces shot down a Saudi fighter jet over Marib province, in what would mark a significant escalation in the renewed fighting that has gripped Yemen since the country’s civil war reignited earlier this year.
A Houthi military spokesman said in a statement that the warplane was brought down while carrying out operations in support of Saudi-backed military mobilisations in the airspace over Marib, a strategic province in central Yemen that has repeatedly changed hands and remained a key front line in the conflict. The spokesman said the aircraft was targeted using a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile, a claim that could not be independently verified and which Saudi authorities have not yet confirmed or denied.
The Houthis further accused Saudi Arabia of having launched 450 airstrikes as part of its ongoing military campaign, a figure presented without independent corroboration but consistent with the group’s pattern of publicising alleged coalition strikes to bolster its narrative of resistance against what it describes as external aggression.
Marib has long held outsized strategic importance in Yemen’s conflict, both for its oil and gas infrastructure and for its position as one of the last major strongholds of the internationally recognised Yemeni government in the country’s north. Control over the province has been contested for years, with the Houthis making repeated attempts to seize it from government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition.
The claim comes against the backdrop of a fragile and deteriorating security situation in Yemen, where fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces resumed in July after a period of relative calm that had followed earlier ceasefire efforts. The renewed hostilities have raised concerns among regional observers about a return to full scale conflict in a country that has already endured one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises over the past decade, with millions displaced and dependent on international aid.
Neither the Saudi-led coalition nor the internationally recognised Yemeni government has issued an official response to the Houthi claim regarding the downed jet. Independent verification of such claims from the conflict zone remains difficult given restricted media access, and previous assertions by the Houthis about downed aircraft have in some cases been disputed by coalition officials. Regional analysts are watching closely for signs of whether the incident, if confirmed, could trigger a broader retaliatory response from Riyadh.
