Two Saudi guards killed on border with Yemen

Two Saudi border guards have been killed in an attack from Yemen by Iran-backed rebels, Riyadh’s official news agency and a rebel-run news site said.

Sergeants Ali al-Ghazwani and Sarwi al-Saeed were “martyred while carrying out their duty in protecting the country’s borders from rebel aggressors” on Sunday, the official SPA said, quoting a statement by the Saudi-led coalition.

They were killed in the Jazan district bordering Yemen, it added without giving details.

Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition that has been carrying out air strikes against the Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies across Yemen since March 26.

The rebel-run Sabanews.net website reported that anti-government militia in Yemen attacked Saudi border positions on Sunday in the Aseer and Jazan regions.

They claimed firing Katyusha rockets, destroying army vehicles, and killing “several” Saudi soldiers.

The latest cross-border barrages coincide with advances since mid-July by pro-government fighters in southern Yemen, as well as in third city Taez, seen as a gateway to the rebel-held capital.

The Saudi soldiers bring the number of people killed in shelling and skirmishes on the kingdom’s side along the frontier with Yemen to more than 51 since the coalition campaign began on March 26.

Most of the casualties have been soldiers.

In Yemen, the United Nations says the war has killed nearly 4,300 people, half of them civilians.