News / Yemen

Saudi soldiers killed, tanks destroyed in Yemeni retaliatory attacks

Saturday, 14 July 2018 5:46 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 14 July 2018 6:12 AM ]

Saudi border guards in the closed al-Tuwal border crossing with Yemen in the southern Jizan Province. (File photo by AFP)

At least four Saudi soldiers have been killed and several tanks destroyed in retaliatory attacks by Yemeni armed forces in the kingdom's southern Najran region.

The Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster reported that the casualties occurred on Friday night after the Yemeni army's missile and artillery units targeted a convoy of Saudi tanks near the al-Sadis military base.

Also, the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network affiliated to the Houthi Ansarullah movement quoted a military source as saying that the Yemeni attacks had precisely hit the target and left several Saudi mercenaries dead and injured.

Separately, al-Masirah reported that fighters from Yemeni Popular Committees and the Houthi Ansarullah movement had fired a Zelzal 2-type missile at a camp of Saudi soldiers in the kingdom's southwestern Asir region.

Yemeni forces regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia in retaliatory attacks against the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the Houthi fighters.

Saudi Arabia has also imposed a blockade on Yemen, which has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent impoverished state.

PressTV-Sa'ada sees Yemenis in fury over Saudi-led war

The city has been a stronghold of Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement fighting against Riyadh and its allies.

The Saudi-led offensive has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the latest figures released by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

Several Western countries, the US and the UK in particular, have been supplying Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons and military equipment.

Saudi king pardons soldiers fighting in Yemen

Earlier this week, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued a controversial royal decree, which exonerated all troops operating in Yemen from any accountability issues they may face over their conduct in the war.

The decree carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the royal pardon extends to "all military men who have taken part in the Operation Restoring Hope," referring to the Riyadh-led invasion of Yemen by its official name.

The decree did not mention which crimes the Saudi soldiers were pardoned for, but exonerated all troops from “their respective military and disciplinary penalties, in regard of some rules and disciplines.”

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