Riyadh, November 04: A cross-border attack by Yemeni fighters kills a Saudi soldier and injures 11 others as Riyadh faces mounting hatred over its involvement in Sana’a offensive in the north.
The attack took place early on Tuesday near the kingdom’s southern border area of Jebel Doukhan, across from an area where Yemeni forces have been fighting Houthi fighters, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Wednesday.
“Armed men infiltrated at Jebel Doukhan… and opened fire on the Border Patrol with weapons of different caliber, killing one and injuring 11 others,” SPA quoted an unidentified official as saying.
The report, which could not be independently confirmed, did not identify the attackers or say whether any had been injured in the conflict.
The incident comes as the Sunni-dominated Riyadh government has been accused of providing the Yemeni army with military aid in its offensive against the Shia opposition movement in the north.
The Houthi fighters took up arms against the government in 2004 in protest to what they called the discrimination and repression of the country’s Shia minority.
On Monday, the Houthis accused Riyadh of permitting Yemeni government troops to launch attacks against them from a Saudi security installation in Jabal al-Dukhan.
“We advise the Saudi regime to remain impartial and not allow the Yemeni army to use its territories to attack us, because we would be otherwise forced to retaliate,” they warned in an e-mailed statement.
Yemen has seen some 150,000 people displaced or affected by the conflict between the army and Houthi fighters, nearly 55,000 of whom forced out of their homes since the army unleashed Operation Scorched Earth in August.
—–Agencies