Verified video shows wreckage of Saudi fighter jet shot down over Yemen
Footage released by the Houthi movement shows armed individuals examining the debris of a downed Saudi aircraft. In one of several clips, fighters armed with battle rifles are seen at the crash site inspecting the wreckage, noting the aircraft’s largely intact tail fin bearing the Saudi emblem and a four‑digit serial number.
The fate of the aircrew remains unclear.
The Houthis also circulated a thermal recording that, owing to insufficient visual detail, cannot be fully authenticated. The clip appears to show a combat aircraft in flight being struck by a missile.
BBC Verify has approached the Saudi Ministry of Defence for a statement.
Baraa Shiban, a Yemen specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, told BBC Verify that the incident demonstrates “very wide the Houthis person been taking vantage of proposal and technological support” from Iran. He added, “They proceed to make their subject arsenal and capabilities to marque it much and much achy connected Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Adam Baron, a Yemen expert with the Washington‑based New America think tank, described the downing of the F‑15 as a “propaganda coup.” He said Saudi air power is regarded as “key to immoderate important pushback” against recent Houthi advances, and noted, “An eye-for-an-eye has been a immense constituent of the group's nationalist messaging. This is partially to amusement that aerial enactment volition travel astatine a price,” he added.