Army soldiers, allies kill six Saudi mercenaries in southern Yemen

Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have launched an operation against militiamen loyal to the resigned and Saudi-backed president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the country’s southwestern province of Ta’izz, killing a number of them.

The media bureau of the operations command in Yemen announced on Sunday that six Saudi mercenaries were killed and two others sustained injuries when Yemeni troopers engaged in clashes with them in the Pasha Bear district of the province, situated 346 kilometers (214 miles) south of the capital Sana’a, the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

Separately, Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters fired a locally-manufactured Zelzal-2 (Earthquake-2) missile at a gathering of Saudi mercenaries in the Mefraq area of the country's northern province of al-Jawf, leaving scores of pro-Saudi gunmen dead and injured.

The developments came on the same day that pro-Hadi media outlets alleged that Saudi-backed militants had intercepted a ballistic missile and destroyed it in the west-central Ma'rib Province.  

Yemeni soldiers and allied fighters also clashed with Saudi-backed militiamen in Asifrah neighborhood of Ta’izz, killing one of them.

An unnamed Yemeni military source said several pro-Saudi gunmen were killed when fighters from the Houthi Ansarullah movement thwarted their offensive against Boqe'e crossing in Najran, located 844 kilometers (524 miles) south of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Moreover, a number of Saudi soldiers and their mercenaries lost their lives and sustained injuries when Yemeni forces repelled their assault against the Alab border crossing in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern and border region of Asir.

Saudi fighter jets also carried a string of airstrikes against residential neighborhoods across Yemen, leaving several people killed and injured.

A civilian lost his life when Saudi warplanes bombarded the Razih district in Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada.

Saudi aircraft also launched more than a dozen aerial attacks against Monabbih, Kahlan and As Safra districts in the same Yemeni province.

Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a deadly campaign against Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall the former Yemeni government.

The airstrikes have taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

The Saudi aerial bombardment campaign has claimed 11,403 lives and left 19,343 others wounded, according to figures compiled by the Yemeni non-governmental monitoring group Legal Center for Rights and Development.

Yemen is also grappling with the scarcity of food supplies and an outbreak of diseases amid the Saudi war.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 7.4 million Yemeni children are in dire need of medical help, and 370,000 run the risk of acute malnutrition.

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