Riyadh, Aden: Two Saudi border guards have been killed in an attack from Yemen by Iran-backed militia, Riyadh’s official news agency and a militia-run news site said.
Sergeants Ali Al Ghazwani and Sarwi Al Saeed were “martyred while carrying out their duty in protecting the country’s borders from rebel aggressors” on Sunday, the official SPA said, quoting a statement by the Saudi-led coalition.
They were killed in the Jazan district bordering Yemen, it added without giving details.
Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition that has been carrying out air strikes against the Al Houthi militia and their allies across Yemen since March 26.
The militia-run Sabanews.net website reported that anti-government militia in Yemen attacked Saudi border positions on Sunday in the Aseer and Jazan regions.
They claimed firing Katyusha rockets, destroying army vehicles, and killing “several” Saudi soldiers.
The latest cross-border barrages coincide with advances since mid-July by pro-government fighters in southern Yemen, as well as in third city Taez, seen as a gateway to the militia-held capital.
The Saudi soldiers bring the number of people killed in shelling and skirmishes on the kingdom’s side along the frontier with Yemen to more than 51 since the coalition campaign began on March 26.
Most of the casualties have been soldiers.
In Yemen, the United Nations says the war has killed nearly 4,300 people, half of them civilians.
In Yemen’s third city Taez, heavy fighting between government loyalists and militia left more than 80 people dead in the past 24 hours, military sources said on Monday.
The dead bodies of 50 Al Houthis and allied troops were retrieved from the city on Monday, the sources in Taez said, adding that 31 pro-government fighters were also killed.
Loyalist and militia forces have fought over Taez — a key city seen as a gateway to capital Sana’a — for several days as pro-government troops press recent territorial gains after retaking much of southern Yemen from rebel fighters.
On Monday, Yemeni authorities had to evacuate more than 140 wounded fighters from the government-run “May 22” hospital in Aden after an electricity generator exploded, sparking a fire that spread to a nearby Red Cross hospital, the city’s health chief Al Khader Laswar said.
Authorities have been struggling to restore order to Aden, which was left devastated by heavy fighting.
Aden’s central bank governor Khalid Zakaria said on Monday that it was operating again for the first time in months and that long-frozen payments of state employees’ salaries would resume.
He told reporters that during the fighting in the city the rebels had blown up one of the bank’s coffers and “confiscated” funds equal to some $600,000 (Dh2.2 million.)
