Houthis say they downed Saudi F-15 over Marib; Riyadh silent

Yemen's Houthi movement said on September 16, 2026 that one of its surface-to-air missiles struck a Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 over Marib Governorate. No Saudi official response had been issued when the statement circulated.

Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the group, said on al-Masirah television that the fighter was brought down by a missile built inside Yemen. He gave no timing for the engagement and did not name the system involved.

Saree said Houthi air defences fired further locally produced missiles at two formations of Saudi F-15 and Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft that entered Marib airspace looking for the downed jet. Both formations pulled back, he said. Saudi F-15s and Typhoons had flown more than 450 strikes across several Yemeni provinces, according to Saree.

The claim has not been independently confirmed. Neither the Saudi-led coalition nor the Saudi Ministry of Defense had responded to it publicly, and Houthi shootdown claims in earlier rounds of the conflict have often gone unverified.

Saree's description of domestically made weaponry follows an announcement by the AI company Anthropic that a cell in northern Yemen under Houthi control had used its Claude model to write guidance software for rockets and advanced missiles. Anthropic said the group ran what appeared to be an unsuccessful guided rocket test and that it found no evidence an operational weapon had been fielded.

Saudi Arabia flies more than 200 F-15 fighters. In February 2026 the US State Department approved a proposed $3 billion sustainment package for those aircraft.