SANA'A — A Yemeni air force plane crashed in the capital Sana'a Tuesday, killing at least 12 people, security sources said. State news agency Saba said three women and two children were among those killed when the plane, on a training flight, came down in a western residential district. Eleven people were wounded, security sources said. The plane crashed during a training exercise, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Al-Mawry. It hit two houses in the Al-Qadissiya district, Al-Mawry told The Associated Press. He said the pilot was also killed in the crash. The spokesman did not give a reason for the crash but said military experts were investigating the incident. Pictures of the crash on social media sites showed one body near burning wreckage of the aircraft. Several cars were on fire and debris littered the street. “It's terrible and painful,” resident Abdullah Al-Ashwal said. “The police and medics evacuated five completely burned bodies, they were all unrecognizable.” Abdulsattar Mohammed said he saw a plane burning near houses that were also set on fire. “People were terrified and ambulances arrived late,” he said. A military official said the plane was a Russian SU-22 fighter/ground attack aircraft. An eyewitness, Ahmed Fathi, said he saw five burnt bodies taken away by an ambulance. Fathi, who lives in the neighborhood, also said two houses were completely destroyed in the crash and that people were still believed to be under the rubble. The neighborhood is close to the main city square that was the epicenter of Yemen's uprising and protests in the past two years. In November 2012, a Yemeni military transport plane crashed near Sana'a airport and burst into flames, killing all 10 people aboard. Yemen has 30 SU-22s and four SU-22UM3s in an air force with 79 capable aircraft in all, according to the 2012 Military Balance handbook issued by the International Institute of Strategic Studies. — Agencies
