News / Yemen

Yemeni retaliatory attacks leave eight Saudi soldiers dead

Friday, 19 January 2018 1:57 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 19 January 2018 4:11 PM ]

This file photo shows a Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah fighter dressed in camouflage, and aiming at a position of Saudi troops in southwestern Saudi Arabia. (Photo by the media bureau of Yemen’s Joint Operations Command Center)

At least eight Saudi soldiers have been killed when Yemeni army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Committees launched separate attacks in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border regions of Jizan, Najran and Asir as they continue their retaliatory raids against Riyadh regime’s aerial bombardment campaign.

A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni forces and their allies fatally shot five soldiers just outside Hamezah village of Jizan, located 967 kilometers southwest of the capital Riyadh, and al-Shabakah military camp on Friday afternoon.

Later in the day, Yemeni army forces shot and killed two other Saudi soldiers in Raqabat al-Zour military base of Najran region, located 844 kilometers (524 miles) south of Riyadh.

Furthermore, Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters killed a Saudi serviceman in the al-Majazah area of Asir region.

Also, Yemeni forces and their allies fired a salvo of artillery rounds at al-Nahouqah military camp in Najran, with no casualties reported

On Friday morning, Saudi fighter jets carried out three airstrikes against an area in the Razih district of Yemen’s northwestern region of Sa’ada.

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

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 a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen.

According to the World Health Organization’s latest count, the cholera outbreak has killed 2,167 people since the end of April and is suspected to have infected 841,906.

A nurse holds a premature baby in an incubator at the child care unit of a hospital in Sana’a, Yemen, on January 16, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

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.

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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Saudi Arabia Yemen Middle East Yemeni forces Sa'ada Najran Popular Committees Yemeni troops Saudi aggression Jizan airstrike Saudi soldiers Saudi forces