Yemen’s Houthi fighters kill two Saudi officers in latest attack

Middle East, News May 28, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Two Saudi border guards were killed and five wounded by shells fired from Yemeni territories, an Interior Ministry spokesman said late on Wednesday.

Yemeni military sources said on Thursday that Houthi fighters and allied fighters shelled a Saudi military camp in the southwestern city of Najran.

Saudi state news agency SPA said the border guards were killed at a military post in Dhahran al-Janoub, along the border with Yemen, when projectiles fired from the Yemeni side struck.

At least two military sites in the border region came under fire while a number of military installations and several military vehicles were destroyed in the shelling.

The latest attack came hours after Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed that two Saudi border guards were killed in a rocket attack on a border area in Asir region. The deadly attack also left five Saudi border guards wounded.

In recent weeks, several rocket attacks by Yemeni forces targeted military positions in the Saudi border cities of Najran and Dhahran al-Janub.

Smoke rises after a Saudi-led airstrike hit a site where many believe the largest weapons cache in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on April 21, 2015. Photo: Hani Mohammed/AP Photo

Saudi forces and the Houthis have been trading fire across the border since an Arab alliance began military operations against the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group in March to try to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

The Saudi-led coalition says it began their campaign heeding a call by Hadi after the Houthis started advancing south towards the port city of Aden, where the president was based.

The Houthis, who captured the Yemeni capital Sanaa last September, say they are fighting against Sunni Islamist militants using areas outside their control as staging grounds for attacks. They also accused officials in Hadi’s government of siphoning public funds.

The United Nations says about 2,000 people have been killed and 7,300 others injured in the conflict in Yemen over the past two months.

YN/JR/KA/HMV