ADEN –
Two pilots died when a United Arab Emirates Mirage plane crashed in Yemen on
Monday due to a technical fault while conducting military operations for the Saudi-led
alliance, the coalition said in a statement carried by Saudi state media.

Local
Yemeni officials said the plane was flying low when it crashed into a mountain
after it conducted bombing raids in Buraiqa district in north-western Aden
where Islamist militants are based.

Hani
al-Yazidi, director of the Buraiqa district in Aden, said authorities had found
the plane’s wreckage after it had crashed into a mountain.

Another
local official, who declined to be identified, said rescue teams had found the
body of one of the pilots and were searching for the second.

The UAE
armed forces had earlier said in a brief statement that the jet taking part in
the fighting was “lost”.

The
government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led
coalition, has embarked on a campaign against Islamist militants based in
northern Aden whom it accuses of being behind armed attacks and suicide
bombings that have killed scores of people since last year.

Helicopters
from the Saudi-led coalition have taken part in the military operations which
were concentrated in al-Mansoura district, east of Buraiqa, where at least 18
people had died in overnight fighting on Sunday.

Residents
reported more helicopter overnight strikes on Monday that lasted until the
morning. Yemeni forces later entered a block where the militants had been holed
up without resistance and seized the local council building which had been
controlled by the fighters.

The
militants had apparently fled before the troops went in.

The
coalition entered Yemen’s civil war in March last year to try to restore
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Iran-allied Houthis and forces loyal to
former president Ali Abdullah Saleh ousted him from power.

There
was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition.

At least
two jets from the alliance have crashed since the start of the campaign.

In May
2015 a Moroccan F-16 warplane crashed while on a mission with the alliance in
Yemen, and the Houthi militia said tribesmen had shot down the aircraft.

In December a Bahraini F-16 jet
from the coalition crashed in Yemen’s neighbour, Saudi Arabia, after a
technical fault.

– Reuters