The Sudi-led Arab Coalition Forces Command backing Yemen's legitimate government announced on Tuesday morning a Saudi Black Hawk helicopter crashed while on a mission in Marib.
A Yemeni defence ministry news website said the helicopter went down due to friendly fire.
The death toll was one of the largest in a single incident involving Saudi forces since a coalition of Arab states began military operations against the armed Houthi movement in 2015 to try to restore Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.
The casualties include four officers and eight non-commissioned officers.
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"The helicopter was shot down mistakenly.as a result of a misreading of the air defence system", an unnamed spokesperson of the Defence Ministry was quoted as saying in a statement.
SPA reported that the crash happened while armed forces were carrying out operational duties in the province of Marib in Yemen.
In September 2015, a rebel missile strike on a coalition base in Marib killed 67 coalition soldiers, majority Emiratis.
Houthi rebels seized the capital Sana'a in September 2014 and continued to advance through the country, before the Yemeni army backed by the Saudi-led air campaign managed to regain the southern city of Aden, which now hosts the government and the presidential office.
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