Scores of Saudi soldiers killed in Yemeni missile attack

In this file photo, a Saudi soldier sits atop an armored vehicle on the border with Yemen, at a military post in Najran, Saudi Arabia. (By AP)

A large number of Saudi soldiers have been killed in a Yemeni missile attack against a military base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border region of Asir.

An unnamed Yemeni military source said military forces and their allies launched a ballistic missile at the al-Montazah base in Asir on Tuesday, leaving scores of Saudi troopers and their mercenaries dead and injured, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.

The source added that two Saudi armored vehicles were also destroyed in the attack.

Shortly afterward, Yemeni soldiers and fighters from the Popular Committees fired several artillery rounds at the Mosallas al-Rakbah base in the Saudi Jizan region, located 967 kilometers southwest of the capital, Riyadh.

A blaze swept through the military site as the projectiles struck.

Separately, Yemeni soldiers and allied fighters launched a domestically-manufactured Zelzal-2 (Earthquake-2) missile at a gathering of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to the former government in the al-Maslub district of Yemen’s northern province of Jawf.

Several pro-Saudi gunmen also lost their lives and sustained injuries when their military camp was targeted by Yemeni forces in the al-Hariqiyah area of the southwestern province of Ta’izz.

A Yemeni girl near a building damaged in a Saudi airstrike, in the country’s third city of Ta’izz, December 27, 2016. (Photo by AFP) 

Also on Tuesday, Saudi fighter jets bombarded a school in the As Safra district of Yemen’s northwestern mountainous province of Sa’ada. There were no immediate reports of possible casualties and damage, though.

A civilian was also killed and another two sustained injuries when Saudi warplanes struck residential buildings in the Majz district of the same Yemeni province.

Earlier, Saudi jets had pounded an area in the Saqayn district of Sa’ada Province, leaving six people dead and another injured.

A disabled Yemeni man receives treatment at a clinic for prosthetic limbs and physical rehabilitation in the capital, Sana’a, December 21, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Yemeni forces and fighters from allied Popular Committees have been staging recurrent retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia, which has been waging a war on the impoverished country since March 2015.

The Saudi war on Yemen, which has killed at least 11,400 Yemenis, was launched in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate a former government.

The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.