Yemeni sharpshooters kill 2 Saudi troops in Jizan

Two Saudi soldiers have been killed when the Yemeni army and fighters from the allied Popular Committees launched an attack against the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Jizan in retaliation for the Riyadh regime’s campaign against the impoverished Arab country.

An unnamed military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni snipers fatally wounded the soldiers in the Saudi military outpost of al-Maridhah on Tuesday, a day after sharpshooters killed another Saudi soldier in al-Zaqilah military base in the same region.

The source added that the artillery of the national forces also shelled gatherings of Saudi forces in several military bases and outposts, including al-Sharhawi and Nashaw, across the region’s border areas. Furthermore, Yemeni forces fired Katyusha rockets against gatherings of Saudi troops and military hardware and vehicles in the southern region of Nagran.

Reports say the attacks inflicted heavy damage upon the Saudi war machine in the two neighboring regions.

Back in April, Arabic-language Yemen Watch news agency reported that in the first quarter of this year, Yemeni forces had killed a total of 119 Saudi soldiers. Most of the operations were conducted in Jizan, where a total of 74 Saudi soldiers were slain. Thirty-five and 10 other Saudi troops were killed in Najran and Asir regions, respectively.

A report by Reuters published in April last year revealed that at least 400 Saudi soldiers had been killed in the cross-border fire since the start of the Saudi campaign in March 2015. Riyadh has maintained a policy of ambiguity regarding its casualties in the war on Yemen. Senior military officials have said that they would not release such information until after the campaign.

SS