Investing.com– Two Saudi soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash near Yemen on Sunday, as regional fighting intensified and tanker attacks threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi-led coalition said an AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter crashed in Najran due to a technical malfunction, killing both crew members.
Coalition spokesman Gen. Turki al-Maliki said the plane crashed in an area under the jurisdiction of the Saudi Ministry of National Guard.
The incident followed a claim by Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree that the group had shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter near Najran on Saturday. Al-Maliki rejected this claim.
Najran has faced repeated attacks from the Houthis as the conflict in Yemen increasingly becomes another front in the U.S.-led war against Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said two supertankers hit naval mines on Saturday, sparking fires. The Iranian Navy separately reported an oil tanker on fire in the Gulf of Oman.
The IRGC reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to ships traveling without Iranian authorization.
Britain’s Maritime Trade Operations agency also reported two attacks on oil tankers near Saudi Arabia on Friday, including one involving a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a small boat.
The Iranian claims could not be independently verified.
Despite the maritime threats, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had submitted a seven-day proposal via Qatar to reopen the strait if certain conditions were met.
Araghchi said the decision now rests with Washington.
U.S. Central Command offered a mixed assessment, saying 97 percent of ships attempting to pass through the strait did so without being hit by Iranian projectiles.
The military also said it had redirected 138 commercial ships to strengthen its blockade of Iranian ports.
Separately, the Saudi-led coalition reported intercepting ballistic missiles and drones launched by Yemen’s Houthis towards Riyadh, Khamis Mushait and other areas.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to defend Saudi Arabia if necessary, seeking parliamentary authorization for possible military assistance.
US President Donald Trump said the war in Iran would end “very quickly” and predicted a drop in fuel prices once hostilities end.
However, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has warned Iran of further military devastation unless it abandons its nuclear ambitions.
These developments highlight the scale of the conflict and the growing threats to regional energy supplies.
Gn world
