Yemen Shia guerrillas, who are sometimes involved in border clashes with the forces of Saudi Arabia, Saturday (16/1/2010) said it had shot down an Apache helicopter in the middle of Saudi Arabia Saudi air attacks, which they say killed at least 15 villagers. The helicopter was shot down Friday the Saudi military was headed for Jebel al-Doud, guerrilla spokesman said Abdul Salam Mohammed told AFP by telephone. He said the guerrillas fired with a ‘special machine guns’ on the plane, who apparently was doing the shooting from the air before it crashed near Al-Khouba, on the border. The Saudi military officers could not immediately be reached for for comment. Tunneling was over in an hour, and stopped after the helicopter to crash, said Abdul Salam. He added, that the bombing continued throughout the night with the target in the vicinity of the border. He said the air attacks that ‘strike as far as 100 kilometers or more in the area of Yemen’ killed at least 15 civilians in the area Razeh, Shaza and Haydan.
Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that his party regain control of the small village of Arabia, al-Jabiri, which has been occupied by the guerrillas after the fighting broke out on the border last November. But the guerrillas, whose stronghold defenses across the Saudi border, in the northern Yemeni province of Saada, Saudi Arabia refused to claim it. They said that their fighters still control the village. Saudi Arabia launched several operations against the guerrillas who have been trapped in a military war with Yemen, after accusing them of killing a Saudi border guards, and occupying two border villages on 3 November.
