Yemeni, Saudi forces clash on border, combatants say

Forces allied to Yemen’s Houthi group attacked Thursday across the border into Saudi Arabia’s southern Jizan province, with both sides claiming victory in the skirmish and giving conflicting accounts of casualties.

Sources in a Saudi-led coalition said Saudi forces at the Jabal Dukhan mountain repelled the attack by Yemeni Republican Guard troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing about 25 and wounding 30.

In the Yemeni capital Sanaa, a Houthi official said the clash resulted in the Houthi capture of the mountain as well as a place called Al Romaih. The commander of a Saudi rapid intervention force was killed in the fighting, he added.

Saleh is an ally of the Iranian-allied Houthi movement, which the Saudi-led coalition has been fighting since March 2015 to try to restore ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people, the United Nations estimates, and displaced more than three million.

Source: Reuters