Yemeni forces have captured a military base in Saudi Arabia’s border region of Najran in their latest counterattack against the kingdom's military campaign in the impoverished southern neighbor.
They stormed the newly-constructed Shatib base some 844 km south of the capital Riyadh on Thursday, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.
The Yemeni soldiers and their allies engaged in an exchange of gunfire with Saudi troops at the base, leaving scores of them dead or injured.
A number of Saudi soldiers reportedly left their assault rifles and mortar shells behind and fled the base.
Yemeni troops have been trying to purge strategic military positions overlooking the city of Najran of Saudi soldiers.
On Wednesday, several Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed and injured during an ambush in the Midi district of the northwestern province of Hajjah.
Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a deadly campaign against Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to bring back the former Yemeni government to power and undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The impoverished Arab country is grappling with the scarcity of food supplies and outbreak of diseases amid Saudi Arabia’s atrocious airstrikes.
The United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) says 7.4 million Yemeni children are in dire need of medical help, and 370,000 run the risk of severe acute malnutrition.