Click to see full-size image. (Sgt. Harley Jelis/Army National Guard)

Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) announced late on October 17 that they shot down a Saudi AH-64 Apache attack helicopter near the border with the kingdom’s southern province of Najran.

In a statement, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the movement’s military spokesman, said the American-made helicopter had been targeting Houthi positions along the border.

“Our armed forces, with the help and grace of God, managed to shoot down an Apache belonging to the Saudi enemy opposite Najran while it was carrying out hostile actions against our forces’ positions along the border,” Saree said. “It was shot down with a suitable weapon.”

The Houthis operate a range of air defense systems, from man-portable weapons to interceptors and medium-range surface-to-air missiles.

The Apache is Saudi Arabia’s principal attack helicopter, with a modernized AH-64E estimated to cost about $52 million per helicopter according to recent U.S. Army procurement figures.

Open-source inventories list 22 Apaches with the Royal Saudi Land Forces and 12 others with the Saudi Arabian National Guard.

The announcement came just days after the Houthis said they had struck a Saudi Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet over Yemen’s Saada province. The group later released footage showing a missile hitting the jet during flight, supporting its claim.

Including the latest claim, the Houthis have announced 18 shootdowns since the start of the ongoing confrontation with Saudi Arabia. Aside from an American-made F-15SA fighter jet, all other warplanes shot down by the Houthis were combat drones.

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Iran has provided Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) with weapons, targeting intelligence and military training that have helped the group carry out increasingly sophisticated attacks against Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies, The Wall Street Journal reported on October 17.

The assistance includes intelligence for selecting targets for drone and missile strikes, tactical guidance and training, according to the report, which cited people briefed on intelligence from Saudi Arabia and the anti-Houthi alliance in Yemen.

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers have also deployed inside Yemen, helping direct military operations, the report said.

Iran has supplied weapons to the Houthis through traditional dhow boats, resorting to submarines when maritime shipments were disrupted by U.S. and Israeli strikes, the Journal revealed, citing European and Houthi officials.

The report also described an alleged weapons shipment in July aboard two flights operated by Mahan Air, an Iranian airline under U.S. sanctions.

The flights were ostensibly transporting Yemeni pilgrims and Houthi officials to Tehran for the funeral of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, they also carried Iranian paramilitary officers and weapons-related cargo, including drone components, missile guidance systems and impact detonators, according to people familiar with intelligence from Saudi Arabia and the anti-Houthi alliance.

The discovery prompted Saudi-aligned forces to bomb the runway at Sanaa airport in an attempt to stop the second flight, setting off the latest escalation in the conflict.

Iranian officers have also helped the Houthis deploy missiles and radars at positions threatening the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, according to the Journal.

The group’s offensive, which accelerated in September, combined large-scale infantry assaults with missile and drone attacks, enabling it to capture the Red Sea port city of Mokha and seize territory around the Bab al-Mandeb.

The group’s increasingly sophisticated tactics, including the use of first-person-view drones guided by fiber-optic cables, indicated that its fighters had received training from Iran, according to a person associated with forces fighting the Houthis.

Another official from the anti-Houthi alliance told the Journal that IRGC officers had been present on the front lines directing drone and missile attacks.

The Houthis have also intensified attacks against Saudi targets, including oil tankers, energy facilities and airports. One strike in Riyadh last weekend killed at least 13 people, according to the report.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi official who said he was aboard the second Mahan Air flight, rejected the allegations concerning Iranian officers and weapons, calling them an exaggeration intended to justify the attack on Sanaa airport. He also said claims of Iranian assistance overlooked the group’s own advances in developing its military capabilities.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said last month that Tehran did not interfere in Yemeni affairs and described the Houthis as independent actors pursuing their own interests.

The Journal also acknowledged in its report that the Houthis manufacture some of their own weapons and have obtained components for drones and missiles directly from China, underscoring that their military capabilities do not rely exclusively on Iranian supplies.

The latest allegations may be an attempt to drag Saudi Arabia into a direct confrontation with Iran, amid reports suggesting the United States and Israel could resume war against the Islamic Republic before the end of the year.

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• The Yemeni army (Ansar Allah) fired at least two ballistic missiles at Saudi positions at Badr base near Aden Airport, killing at least six Saudi personnel;
• The Yemeni army’s (Ansar Allah) missile and artillery strikes thwarted a planned Saudi-backed offensive, killing more than 90 fighters and wounding dozens.

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The Houthis (Ansar Allah) fired at least two missiles toward a military facility next to Aden International Airport on October 16, saying the attack targeted a Saudi-led coalition command center and weapons depots at Badr military camp.

Aden’s security department said the missiles struck airport grounds without causing casualties. Meanwhile, Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said they landed about 500 meters from a Yemenia Airways passenger jet preparing to depart for Cairo. Passengers were evacuated, according to a security official.

The strike came a day after the Houthis attacked the al-Maashiq presidential palace, the headquarters of Yemen’s internationally recognized government in Aden.

Yemen’s Health Minister Qasem Buhaibeh said five people were killed and 16 wounded. AFP reported, citing an unnamed Yemeni minister, that Saudi and Yemeni personnel were among the casualties, although no Saudi-specific death toll was disclosed.

The successive attacks have brought mounting pressure on Aden, the interim capital and a key center for the Saudi-backed government.

The Houthis have intensified their military campaign while expanding their territorial gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and tightening their grip around the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, a major shipping passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

At the same time, the group also tightened its siege of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, cutting the city’s main southern road to Aden.

Capturing Taiz would give the group control over another major urban center in southwestern Yemen and could help consolidate its position around the Bab al-Mandab approaches.

The growing frequency of Houthi strikes on Aden may be part of a broader campaign of shaping operations intended to disrupt Saudi-led coalition command-and-control structures ahead of a possible large-scale offensive to capture the port city.

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Illustrative image. (Egyptian Ministry of Defense)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on October 17 called for an emergency parliamentary session to authorize a possible Egyptian intervention to defend Saudi Arabia if requested by the kingdom.

“I call on parliament to convene an emergency session to authorize us to take action to intervene in defense of Saudi Arabia, if we are asked to do so,” El-Sisi said at a graduation ceremony for military academy and college cadets.

“This move and this defense require approval from the Egyptian parliament,” he noted, stressing that Egypt was not seeking to join the war against Yemen’s Houthis.

“I am not speaking about attacking or waging war. We are seeking only to defend,” the Egyptian president added.

Egypt is the latest country to publicly signal support for Saudi Arabia as the kingdom faces escalating missile and drone attacks by the Houthis, who control much of Yemen.

El-Sisi said Cairo would take the necessary measures to protect Saudi Arabia, adding that it was “absolutely unacceptable” for the kingdom’s security and stability to be undermined.

Saudi Arabia has secured defensive military support from Pakistan and Turkey through the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which the three countries agreed to activate on October 5. More recently, the kingdom also received defensive support from the United Kingdom and France.

The United States, for its part, has been providing more substantial military support to Saudi Arabia, including intelligence sharing, operational planning and assistance identifying Houthi targets, as well as weapons and air defense systems.

Still, Riyadh has so far failed to secure a publicly announced commitment from its allies to directly join its offensive against the Houthis inside Yemen.

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