Two killed in UAE military helicopter crash

A United Arab Emirates military helicopter crashed into the sea on Sunday, killing two crew members, the country's armed forces said in a statement.

The aircraft crashed "during a routine flight over international waters, causing the death of its pilot and co-pilot," said the statement on the official WAM news agency.

It did not specify the type of aircraft or the location that it went down.

The UAE, one of the best-equipped militaries in the region, is part of a Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen.

On May 15, the armed forces also announced that an Emirati military jet crashed during training killing the pilot and trainer who were on board.

In an earlier incident, a UAE fighter jet went down close to the southern Yemeni city of Aden in March after suffering a "technical fault", Saudi state TV reported at the time.

The UAE, which plays a key role in the Arab coalition in Yemen, has suffered the some of the alliance's heaviest losses, with dozens of soldiers killed

Last September, 45 UAE troops were killed in a Houthi rocket attack on their base in central Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign in support of Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015 to push back Houthi rebels after they seized the capital Sanaa and many parts of the country.

The war has killed some 6,400 people, with more than 80 percent of the population in desperate need of humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.