Two crew members of a Saudi National Guard reconnaissance helicopter were killed after it crashed in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia due to a technical fault, the Saudi-led coalition's spokesman Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki said in a statement on Sunday.
The helicopter crashed in an area under the jurisdiction of the Saudi National Guard Ministry, as per the statement.
Turki Al-Maliki, official spokesman for the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, said that the an AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter crashed inside Saudi territory due to a technical malfunction and the aircraft belonged to the Ministry of National Guard.
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It went down in the Najran region near the Kingdom's border with Yemen and led to deaths of the two-member crew inside the helicopter.
“The helicopter crashed due to a technical malfunction, resulting in the martyrdom of its two-officer crew,” he said in a statement, offering condolences to the families of the victims.
The incident comes in the backdrop of heightened Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, while the country remains on high alert amid the on-going US-Iran conflict.
Najran is in the Kingdom's southwestern border with Yemen and has been repeatedly targetted by Houthi attacks. On the same day earlier, coalition air defenses intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched toward Khamis Mushayt and a drone targeting the Riyadh region, according to Al-Maliki.
The interceptions came hours after residents in Riyadh and Khamis Mushayt received mobile phone alerts from the General Directorate of Civil Defense warning of a "hostile aerial threat" and urging people to remain indoors and away from windows.
On Saturday, the coalition outlined that it had intercepted and destroyed four drones over Riyadh, the Eastern Province and southern regions of the Kingdom, while at the same time demolishing two ballistic missile launchers in Yemen's Saada governorate.
Saudi-based Aramco's headquarters complex in Dhahran was struck by a ballistic missile on Tuesday, causing a small fire and no injuries, and exposing the vulnerability of crucial energy infrastructure. Saudi said it had intercepted more missiles launched by Iranian-backed Houthis.
The latest security incidents occurred as hostilities intensify since Yemen's conflict reignited in July after years of relative peace.
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