Two pilots were killed when a Saudi military helicopter crashed near the border with Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition announced Sunday, marking its first combat fatalities since hostilities with the Houthi movement escalated in July. The coalition attributed the crash to a technical malfunction, while the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for shooting down the aircraft.

The incident occurred in the Najran region, within Saudi territory near the Yemen border. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki stated that the helicopter involved was an AH-6i reconnaissance model operated by the Ministry of National Guard. "The accident resulted in the martyrdom of its aircrew, consisting of two officers," he said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Contradicting the coalition’s account, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree asserted late Saturday that the group had successfully downed an Apache helicopter belonging to Saudi forces in the same vicinity. Efforts to independently verify the conflicting claims remain limited.

In a related development, the coalition reported intercepting two drones over Riyadh and a third above the Eastern Province, an oil-rich area of the kingdom. Following the reported drone activity, threat alerts were briefly issued for Najran city and As Sulayyil governorate in Riyadh province but were lifted shortly thereafter.

Amid ongoing cross-border tensions, the Kingdom Centre skyscraper in Riyadh, one of the city's prominent landmarks, instructed office tenants to transition to remote work "until further notice." This measure follows a series of repeated Houthi attacks targeting Saudi territory.

The incident underscores the persistent volatility along the Saudi-Yemen border, where the Saudi-led coalition continues its military campaign against the Houthis amid a protracted conflict that reignited earlier this year.