Two border guards in Saudi Arabia were killed during an exchange of gunfire with a group of drug smugglers in the southwest of the kingdom, local media reported Saturday, DPA reported.
The incident took place late Friday when a unit comprised of 10 guards spotted the 15 smugglers and tried to drive them back over the border with Yemen, officials were quoted as saying.
After an exchange of gunfire that left two guards dead, the smugglers escaped, but left behind half a ton of hashish, a spokesman of the guard in the Asir province told the al-Jazirah newspaper.
In June, the kingdom's Interior Ministry announced that 124 suspected drug dealers had been arrested in several operations over a two-month period. Police also seized more than 6.5 tons of hashish and about two kilograms of heroin.