Gunmen shot down military helicopter in central Yemen, 8 killed

Yemeni gunmen shot down a military helicopter in Yemen's central province of Marib on Tuesday, killing eight people, local police said. The helicopter was participating with ground forces in protecting an engineer team on its way to repairing a damaged oil pipeline in Al-Arqain area in Marib when it was attacked on Tuesday afternoon, the policemen told Xinhua anonymously. "The chopper was flying low while it was attacked by heavy gunfire that caused it to crash into the ground," an official of the interior ministry told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity. "The commander of 107th Brigade, Hussein Mashbaa, as well as two pilots and five crew members were killed in the crash," he added. Police said those gunmen were also behind the bombing of the oil pipeline last week.