News / Saudi Arabia / Yemen

Landmine explosion leaves 3 soldiers dead in Saudi Arabia’s Najran

Friday, 12 January 2018 1:30 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 12 January 2018 2:24 PM ]

In this file picture, Saudi military forces stand guard on the Yemen border. (Photo by Getty Images)

At least three Saudi soldiers have been killed when a powerful landmine explosion ripped through their military vehicle in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Najran.

An informed source, requesting anonymity, told Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the incident occurred on Friday afternoon, identifying the deceased as Mohammed al-Fatih, Hazam al-Farwan and Hayef al-Qahtani.

Later in the day, Saudi fighter jets carried out five airstrikes against Samah military base in Yemen’s southwestern city of Dhamar, located some 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.

There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage caused.

Separately, Saudi warplanes launched two aerial attacks against Sahar district in Yemen's mountainous northwestern province of Sa'ada. No casualties or injuries were reported.

At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen in 2015. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

The Saudi-led war has also triggered deadly epidemics of infectious diseases, especially diphtheria and cholera, across Yemen.

Smoke rises as Yemenis inspect the damage at the site of Saudi airstrikes in the northwestern city of Sa’ada on January 6, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

On November 26, the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) said that more than 11 million children in Yemen were in acute need of aid, stressing that it was estimated that every 10 minutes a child died of a preventable disease there.

Yemeni men inspect the damage made by a Saudi airstrike on a bridge between the area of Abs and Harad in the northern province of Hajjah on December 25, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Additionally, the UN has described the current level of hunger in Yemen as “unprecedented,” emphasizing that 17 million people are now food insecure in the country.

It added that 6.8 million, meaning almost one in four people, do not have enough food and rely entirely on external assistance.

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