2 killed in UAE aircraft crash in Yemen

By Ahmed al-Masri

ABU DHABI (AA) - A United Arab Emirates (UAE) military aircraft has crashed over Yemen, killing two people on board.

The General Command of the UAE Armed Forces said in a statement that the pilot and his co-pilot were killed when their military helicopter went down on Monday.

The statement, however, gave no details about the cause of the crash.

The crash came one day a military aircraft taking part in a Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen’s Shia Houthi group crashed, killing two people on board.

In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen against the Houthi group, which overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

In April, the Yemeni government and the Houthis entered into UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait aimed at resolving the conflict, in which more than 6,400 people have been killed and another 2.5 million forced to flee their homes.