News / Yemen

Yemeni snipers kill 2 Saudi troopers in retaliatory attacks

Thursday, 26 January 2017 9:26 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 27 January 2017 7:48 AM ]

This photo shows Saudi border guards at the Saudi-Yemeni border in southwestern Saudi Arabia on April 6, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have shot dead two Saudi troops in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Najran as the Riyadh regime pushes ahead with its aerial bombardment campaign against its crisis-hit southern neighbor.

Yemeni forces shot and killed two Saudi troops in Talah military base of Najran, located 844 kilometers south of the capital Riyadh, on Thursday evening, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

Earlier, Yemeni forces and their allies had targeted and killed a Saudi soldier in the same military site.

Separately, Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters fired a barrage of artillery rounds at al-Jaiba base in Jizan region, located 969 kilometers south of Riyadh, but there were no immediate reports of possible casualties or damage.

Yemeni forces and their allies also lobbed a number of artillery shells against al-Rabu'ah compound in Asir region, but no casualties were reported.

Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement said on Wednesday that at least 16 Saudi soldiers had been killed in sniper attacks by Houthi fighters and allies in the three border regions of Jizan, Asir and Najran since the beginning of 2017.

A report by Reuters published in April last year showed that at least 400 Saudi soldiers had been killed in cross-border fire since the start of Riyadh's campaign in March 2015. Riyadh has maintained a policy of ambiguity regarding its casualties in the war on Yemen. Senior military officials have said that they would not release such information until after the campaign.

A Houthi Ansarullah fighter walks past destroyed houses in the old quarter of the northwestern city of Sa’ada, Yemen, on January 11, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Also on Thursday, Yemeni army soldiers pounded a gathering of Saudi-sponsored Yemeni militiamen loyal to resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the al-Maton district of Yemen’s northern province of al-Jawf, killing and injuring scores of them.

Similarly, dozens of Saudi-backed militiamen were killed and injured when Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters thwarted their assaults against al-Wazi'iyah and Dhubab districts in the southwestern Yemeni province of Ta’izz.

The developments came on the same day that Saudi jets carried out three aerial attacks against Jabal al-Shabakah mountainous area in the same Yemeni province. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the extent of damage.

Baqim district in Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada was also hit, though no reports of casualties were available.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk