Dubai: Three Saudi soldiers have been killed in a clash with armed “hostile elements” who attempted to infiltrate the border from Yemen, the Saudi interior ministry said on Monday.
The clash erupted on Sunday evening hours after a Saudi border guard and two Yemeni civilians were killed in separate incidents in the border region, according to the ministry.
In the latest incident border guards in the southwestern Jazan district “confronted ... an infiltration attempt by hostile elements” who targeted military posts with gunfire and rockets, the ministry said.
The infiltrators were “forced to retreat” but three soldiers were killed in the clash, it added in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The ministry did not specify if the infiltrators belonged to the Iran-backed Al Houthi rebels who frequently clash with Saudi forces and bomb the border region.
Close to 80 people have been killed in border shelling and skirmishes since Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a military intervention against the Al Houthis in its southern neighbour in March.
Meanwhile, a leader of the Al Houthi militia group has been captured in Yemen by the people’s resistance, Sky News Arabia reported.
Abu Laith Al Ghiryani was captured after clashes between Al Houthi and the people’s resistance. The clashes occurred along the outskirts Damet in the Al Dale’ province, southern Yemen. Five Al Houthi militiamen and four fighters from the people’s resistance were killed during the attacks.
Eight more Al Houthi fighters were killed and three of the militia’s vehicles destroyed by Saudi-led coalition air strikes. The group was on their way to resupply Al Houthi fighters in Ma’reb.
The coalition forces launched a number of air strikes on areas where Al Houthi are concentrated. According to Sky News Arabia, the coalition targeted Al Houthi locations in the Al Shariha area, southeast of Taiz, late on Monday. The air strikes came merely hours after coalition jets shelled Al Houthi targets in Beyhan in the Shabwa province as well as a number of areas in Ma’reb. Four Al Houthi targets were killed in the attack.
Forces loyal to the deposed Yemeni-president Ali Abdullah Saleh are continuing to send supplies and armament in an effort to strengthen the Al Houthi presence in Taiz and help them fight the Saudi-led coalition, a commander of the Western Front said.
Abdo Hamood Al Sagheer told Sky News Arabia that Saleh’s forces are sending supplies to Al Houthi militias “on almost a daily basis, thus prolonging their presence in Taiz.”
The Western Front commander described clashes between the coalition and Al Houthi in Taiz as disproportionate.
“The external and internal fronts of Taiz move in parallel,” he said, “we are close to liberating the western part of the city and break the siege of Taiz.”
- with inputs from AFP
