Saudi fighter jet crashes in Yemen: coalition

A Saudi fighter jet crashed in conflict-torn Yemen, the Riyadh-led military coalition said Saturday, as the Huthi rebels said they downed the plane. The Tornado aircraft came down on Friday in northern Al-Jawf province during an operation to support Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The coalition did not specify the fate of the crew or the cause of the crash. The rebels' Al-Masirah television said the jet was downed by the rebels using an "advanced surface-to-air missile".

The rebels reported multiple coalition airstrikes on Saturday in the area where the plane went down as local residents gathered near the debris, according to Al-Masirah. The coalition intervened against the Iran-backed rebels in 2015, first with air and naval forces and later with ground forces as well.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, and sparked what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. On Wednesday, the coalition said it will put on trial military personnel suspected of being behind deadly airstrikes on Yemeni civilians.

The coalition has been widely criticized for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign, which has prompted some Western governments to cut arms deliveries to the countries taking part.