SANAA - A military plane crashed after a bombing run near a rebel stronghold in the northern Yemeni region of Saada on Monday, witnesses said, as Zaidi Shiite fighters said they shot it down.
An army spokesman, quoted on the defence ministry's website, said the Sukhoi plane on a mission crashed in the Anad area due to technical problems.
"The plane which was flying in formation with another aircraft, on the way back from a mission, suddenly swept upwards before crashing in the Anad area," northeast of Saada, one witness said.
The rebels said it was a Russian-built MiG which they had shot down, in a statement on their website. Other witnesses said it was a Sukhoi, which is also Russian-built.
On October 2, the rebels also said they shot down a MiG but the military again said technical problems caused the crash.
The Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth on August 11 in an attempt to finally crush a Zaidi uprising in which thousands of people have been killed since it first broke out in 2004.
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