Saudi Prince Mansour Dies in Helicopter Crash

A Saudi prince has been killed in a helicopter crash that happened near the kingdom’s border with war-torn Yemen on Sunday afternoon.

Prince Mansour Bin Muqrin, the deputy governor of Saudi Arabia’s southern Asir province was killed in the crash “while performing an inspection in remote parts of The Governorate,” a spokeswoman for the Saudi embassy in Washington told NBC News.

The prince, who’s the son of a former crown prince, Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz who was pushed aside by his half-brother King Salman a few months after he took the throne in 2015, was traveling with a team of other government officials, whose fate remains unknown.

Saudi news outlet Okaz said that unconfirmed reports suggested there were no survivors

Before the crash, Saudi officials said they had intercepted a missile near Riyadh’s airport on Saturday that was fired from war-torn Yemen.

Prince Mansour Bin Muqrin’s death comes a day after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the arrest of 11 of his royal cousins, as well as nearly 40 of the country’s most powerful military officers, influential businessmen and government ministers, some of them, were reported to be potential rivals.