Dubai, November 22: Three Saudi soldiers were killed and an unidentified number of others wounded in an attack by Yemeni “infiltrators,” a Saudi daily reported on Sunday.
The soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack by “dozens” of infiltrators in the Jebel Rumayh area on the Yemeni border, Asharq Alawsat said, quoting military sources.
The sources said that Saudi forces “inflicted heavy losses in equipment and lives on the infiltrators,” according to the newspaper.
The names of the deceased soldiers are Majid Haef al-Shami, Faisal Abdel Rahim al-Khaybri, and Mohammed Attiya al-Zahrani, the Saudi-owned newspaper reported. The wounded were taken to the King Fahad Central Hospital, the paper added.
Asharq Alawsat also quoted medical sources at the Samatah Hospital as saying it received “patients” from the front.
Yemeni Shiite rebels, known as Zaidis or Huthis, said in a statement late on Saturday that they had repelled two Saudi attacks into Yemen.
“Today, two incursions into Yemen by the Saudi army were repulsed near the Jebel Rumayh region, and a number of aggressors were killed” and others captured, the statement said.
The statement said the attacks came after Saudi Arabia carried out the heaviest aircraft and missile bombardment since its entry into the conflict on November 4. The Saudi airforce bombed Hidan, Razah, Shedah and Malahidh, the statement said.
“We call on Saudi Arabia to stop its unjustified aggression on Yemen,” the statement said.
Saudi forces entered the conflict on November 4 after rebels killed a border guard and occupied two small villages inside Saudi territory the previous day.
UN children’s agency UNICEF says 240 Saudi villages have been evacuated and 50 schools closed to keep local residents away from the fighting.
Riyadh has said the air strikes and shelling will continue until the rebels withdraw tens of kilometres from the Saudi-Yemeni border.
—Agencies