Army soldiers, allies kill 18 Saudi mercenaries in southern Yemen

Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have launched an operation against militiamen loyal to the resigned and Saudi-backed President, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, in the country’s Southwestern Province of Ta’izz, killing more than a dozen of them.

An unnamed military source told the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network early on Saturday that 15 Saudi mercenaries were killed and 18 others sustained injuries when Yemeni forces thwarted their assault against the Dhubab district of the province, situated 346 kilometers south of the capital Sana’a.

The source added that three vehicles belonging to the Saudi mercenaries were also destroyed.

Earlier, the media bureau of the operations command in Yemen published pictures showing the aftermath of a rocket attack by Yemeni forces against a position of pro-Saudi armed men in an area of Sirwah, which lies about 120 kilometers east of Sana’a.

Four Saudi-sponsored militiamen were killed and several others injured on Friday evening, when Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters lobbed a barrage of artillery rounds at their gathering in the Thua'bat area of Salh district in Tai’zz Province.

Saudi fighter jets also dropped cluster bombs on several residential buildings in Dhabuah village of Nihm district in the Western-Central Yemeni Province of Sana'a, leaving a woman martyred and five people, including three children, injured.

The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, says the nearly two-year-long conflict in the impoverished Arab country has claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people and left 40,000 others wounded.

ME