Saudi says 5 soldiers killed in clashes with Yemeni forces

Saudi Arabia has confirmed that five of its soldiers have been killed in separate clashes with fighters of the Yemeni Houthi movement in the kingdom’s southern border regions of Dhahran Janoub, Jizan and Asir.

Major General Mahya al-Otaibi, Jizan Border Guard chief, told the state-run SPA news agency on Wednesday that conscript Musa bin Mohammed Daeli was killed in Dhahran al-Janoub region near the border with Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada.

Major General Nasser bin Saleh Aldojse, Jizan police chief, added that officer Hamoud Mohammed Awaji lost his life in the southern flank of Saudi Arabia.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of the National Guard Mutaib bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said a soldiers was critically wounded during a heavy exchange of gunfire in the al-Rabu’ah town of the southwestern Asir region.

The three senior Saudi officials, however, did not provide any information about the time when three soldiers were killed and the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Arabic-language Saudi Arabian daily newspaper Okaz also reported that officer Ahmed bin Hassan Atif was killed in the southern part of the kingdom.

Moreover, Akhbar 24 online newspaper reported that a soldier, identified as Ahmed Tohara, died during clashes on the southern border of Saudi Arabia with Yemen.

The developments came as three Qatari soldiers of the Saudi-led military coalition against Yemen were killed during operations in the conflict-ridden country on Monday.

Qatar’s state-run QNA news agency did not give any information on how or where they lost their lives.

Over the past few weeks, there have been multiple losses of life within the ranks of Saudi army soldiers and border guards during encounters with Yemeni soldiers and allied Ansarullah fighters.

Earlier this month, Yemeni snipers fatally shot two Saudi troops in al-Rabu’ah. A Saudi military vehicle also went up in flames after Yemeni soldiers and their allies targeted it with a guided missile at a camp in the same southwestern Saudi town.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015, with the UN putting the death toll from the military aggression at about 10,000. The offensive was launched to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Saudi ally who has resigned as Yemen’s president.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said last month that the death toll from the Saudi military aggression could rise even further as some areas had no medical facilities, and that people were often buried without any official record being made.

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