DUBAI A Bahraini F-16 jet taking part in a mostly Gulf Arab military campaign in Yemen crashed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to a coalition statement on the Saudi state news agency.
The pilot survived after the plane suffered a technical fault and came down in the southern Jizan region, the statement said, without giving further details.
Bahrain has taken part in the Saudi-led coalition bombing the Iran-allied Houthi movement in Yemen for nine months. Scores of ground forces from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been killed since the start of the conflict.
Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had intercepted a Scud ballistic missile fired from Yemen, according to a statement on the Saudi state news agency SPA.
“The Saudi Air Defense Forces intercepted a ballistic missile this morning launched from Yemeni territory towards the city of Jizan. It was destroyed without causing any damage, praise be to God,” it said.
Yemen’s Houthi-run state news agency Saba said the attack was aimed at Jizan’s port and hit its target.
The launch is the latest of several ballistic missile strikes by Yemeni forces on its northern neighbour, none of which have caused any reported casualties.
In a separate incident, Bahrain’s official news agency BNA reported on Tuesday that three of its servicemen were killed along Saudi Arabia’s southern border in an accident, without providing details.
Mostly Gulf Arab forces intervened in the civil war in Yemen on March 26 after the Houthis forced its government into exile and appeared poised to seize the whole country.
The conflict has seen Gulf and pro-government ground forces claw back some strategic territory, but has killed almost 6,000 people and plunged the impoverished country into a humanitarian crisis.
Saudi Arabia and its allies view the Houthis as a proxy for Iranian power in the Arab world, something Iran and the Houthis deny.
(Writing By Noah Browning; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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