Two Saudis killed in rocket attacks launched from Yemen – SPA

Cross border rocket attacks launched from inside Yemen have killed two people in southern Saudi Arabia over the last 24 hours, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA reported on Friday.

SPA quoted a Civil Defence official in the southwestern province of Jizan as saying that a child was killed and three other children were wounded on Friday in the al-Tawal region.

A rocket attack on Thursday killed one citizen and wounded two others in al Hosn village, the agency reported earlier.

Al Masira TV channel, run by the Houthi’s Ansarullah group broadcast footage earlier this week which it said showed Houthi fighters entering a Saudi border post after being fired on by Saudi tanks and helicopters.

But a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition denied the report.

Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies have been conducting an offensive against the Houthis and units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh for more than seven weeks, saying the rebels are backed by Shi’ite Muslim power Iran.

The campaign has yet to reverse the Houthis’ advance into Aden and along battlefronts across Yemen’s south, and diplomats say the group does not appear to be under enough pressure to force it into making political concessions.

Al Qaeda linked militants have exploited disarray caused by the confrontation to extend their operations.

In southern Yemen three suspected al Qaeda militants were killed by a drone strike on a car, while an air raid by Saudi-led planes trying to target Houthi fighters accidentally killed four fighters from the southern resistance movement in the Aden area, residents and local officials said.

In Aden, residents and sources in the southern resistance said four local fighters were killed and three were wounded by an air strike on their position on the coastal road from the Khor Maksar district of the city.

They said they believed the strike had been intended for the Houthis, who have positions in the area.

In Lahj province, scene of heavy clashes in recent weeks, residents said Houthi fighters completed their control of the provincial capital, al-Houta, after local resistance fighters withdrew to spare residents further casualties.