Yemen's Houthis shoot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet

Houthi forces shot down a Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 fighter jet over Marib governorate on Sept. 16, 2026, using a locally manufactured missile, according to Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree. Houthi military media released images and video of the wreckage, showing armed fighters standing on a large piece of tail section bearing a Saudi flag emblem.

Saree said the aircraft was hit while flying a support mission for Saudi-backed forces in Marib. He said Houthi air defenses also engaged two follow-up formations of F-15 and Typhoon jets that entered the area afterward, forcing them to retreat rather than reach the crash site.

The shootdown came the same day The Defence Blog reported that Yemeni government forces, backed by Saudi airstrikes, had hit Houthi positions around the port city of Mocha and the nearby town of Dhubab. Houthi fighters had seized the port and pushed further up the Red Sea coast before that government air response began. The area sits near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a roughly 30-kilometer-wide (19-mile) chokepoint that a large share of global shipping passes through, which has made the coastline a recurring flashpoint since Yemen’s civil war began in 2015.

The F-15 is the backbone of the Royal Saudi Air Force’s strike capability in Yemen. Saudi Arabia operates both older F-15S models and the newer F-15SA variant, built with Boeing under a deal finalized in the 2010s that added fly-by-wire controls, an active electronically scanned array radar and a second weapons station. Marib has been a frequent flashpoint of its own, serving as the last major stronghold of Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces in the country’s north and a regular target for both sides’ air operations.

Houthi forces have steadily expanded their air defense arsenal over the course of the war, adapting Soviet-era surface-to-air missiles and, according to weapons researchers, incorporating Iranian-supplied components into domestically assembled systems. The group has claimed several previous downings of coalition aircraft and drones, though few have been independently confirmed through crash-site verification by outside parties.

Wednesday’s strike came during a week of intensified fighting. Saree said Saudi aircraft had flown more than 450 strikes since Monday, and he separately denied Houthi responsibility for a drone the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted before it could reach restricted airspace over Mecca on Sept. 15. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki called that intercepted drone a “hostile and terrorist act” and said it marked the second time the group had tried to target the city, after an alleged 2017 ballistic missile attempt. Saree pushed back on that characterization, saying Houthi operations target oil facilities and military bases rather than religious sites.

The Houthis have downed Saudi aircraft over Yemen before, including a similar claim over Sanaa in January 2018. In that case, the Saudi-led coalition disputed the account and attributed a separate crash that same week to mechanical failure rather than enemy fire. Neither that earlier incident nor Wednesday’s strike has been confirmed through official Saudi channels.

The renewed fighting follows the collapse of an earlier truce and the resumption of Houthi attacks on Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea, including a maritime blockade the group announced in recent weeks. Saudi Arabia has continued airstrikes against Houthi positions in response, and both sides have accused each other of escalating the conflict beyond its previous front lines.

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