JEDDAH: Two border guards have laid down their lives protecting the Kingdom. They were killed in an attack by Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels, the SPA reported on Monday.
The SPA quoted the Joint Forces Command’s Sunday announcement saying: “Sgt. Ali Mufreh Hassan Ghazouani and Sgt. Sorwi Ahmed Al-Said — the employees of the ground forces — have been martyred.”
The announcement further said the “two have been martyred while performing their duty to protect the borders of the homeland against the attacking rebels on the southern boundary of Jazan sector.”
Days ago, a Saudi soldier was killed in shelling, the military said.
The deaths bring the number of people killed in shelling and skirmishes along the Saudi frontier with Yemen to at least 52 since an Arab-led coalition began an air campaign on March 26 against Houthi militias in Yemen. Most of the casualties have been soldiers.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting between government loyalists and rebels for control of Yemen’s third city Taez has killed more than 80 people in the past 24 hours, military sources said on Monday.
Sources in the city told AFP that the bodies of 50 rebels and allied fighters were recovered from Taez Monday and that 31 pro-government fighters had been killed.
Backed by airstrikes from a Saudi-led coalition, the loyalists have been pushing hard to take Taez, seizing several strategic locations on Sunday.
Coalition strikes continued to hit rebel positions in the city on Monday, witnesses said, as well as in other Yemeni provinces.
The battle for Taez is expected to be difficult for the loyalists, analysts say, with recent victories by pro-government forces in Yemen’s south likely the result of rebels pulling their forces back to the city.
Separately, the US Geological Survey reported a magnitude 5.9 earthquake off the coast of Yemen.
