Araweelo News Network
Saudi soldiers are seen at a military point on the border with Yemen. (File photo by AP)
Riyadh(ANN)-Yemeni forces have killed a Saudi soldier in a cross border shelling attack in the kingdom’s southern province of Najran, in retaliation for Riyadh’s aggression against its impoverished southern neighbor.
According to a statement released by the Saudi Interior Ministry on Sunday afternoon, the border guard, identified as Mohammed Yahya al-Najee, was killed after “an advanced border post in Najran Region was subject to intensive fire and military projectiles” launched from a Yemeni border region earlier in the day.
The statement, carried by the state-run SPA news agency, added that army troops then intervened to support the border guards.
The retaliatory attack came after Saudi airstrikes on Sunday morning pounded Yemeni houses and places of gatherings in Maton district of the northwestern province of Jawf, killing at least six people and wounding a number of others.
Saudi warplanes also bombed the Haydan district in the neighboring province of Sa’ada as well as the port city of Mokha in the southwestern province of Ta’iz. They also conducted at least four air raids on Kholan district in the western province of Sana’a. There were no immediate reports about the possible casualties caused by these airstrikes.
Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah fighters and their allies in Yemen’s army have been launching retaliatory strikes against parts of Saudi territory adjacent to northern Yemen, as well as the gatherings of Riyadh-allied militants inside Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has been engaged in the deadly campaign against Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to bring back Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, to power and undermine the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The Saudi war has so far claimed the lives of at least 11,400 Yemenis, and taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that Saudi military aggression against Yemen has killed nearly 1,400 Yemeni kids, injuring hundreds more.