Yemeni fighters kill two Saudi soldiers in retaliatory attack on Jizan
Yemeni army soldiers and fighters from allied popular Committees have killed two Saudi soldiers in retaliatory attack on Saudi positions in the southern border regions of Jizan.
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The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Sunday that Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz, the deputy governor of Jizan, met the families of Sergeant Ahmed bin Yahya Suleiman al-Ghazwani and Conscript Sultan bin Issa Shibli, and conveyed messages of condolence from King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The report, however, did not mention when exactly the soldiers had been killed.
Separately, three African refugees lost their lives on Sunday, when Saudi border guards fired indiscriminate shots into an area in Yemen’s mountainous northwestern province of Sa’ada.
A local source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Saudi soldiers attacked al-Raqou area in the Monabbih district of the province.
On November 27, at least ten African refugees were killed and 22 others injured when the Saudi-led military coalition carried out heavy artillery shelling on the same Yemeni area.
Despite the ongoing Saudi-led campaign and escalating humanitarian crisis in Yemen, this year has seen a spike in the number of arrivals of East African refugees in Yemen.
Many of the refugees intend to transit through Yemen en route to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries.
In its latest report, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said some 84,378 East African migrants entered Yemen in the first six months of 2019, representing the highest number of arrivals since data became available in 2006.
Elsewhere in the Razih district of Sa’ada province, the Saudi army launched a barrage of artillery rounds and mortar shells at residential neighborhoods on Sunday.
There were no immediate reports about possible casualties and the extent of damage.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past four and a half years.
The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.
