Yemen fire kills 3 Saudi soldiers, as one dead in crash

In the latest escalation of Yemen’s five- month war, Houthi rebels said they’ve fired a Scud missile into Saudi Arabia while a Saudi official acknowledged sending forces into northern Yemen in a bid to stop border attacks.

The troops moved for several kilometres inside the Yemeni province of Saada near the Saudi border town of Jizan, the Dubai-based television channel said.

Saudi Maj. Gen. Abdulrahman al-Shahrani, commander of the 18th brigade, died of hostile fire on Sunday in the same region.

After initially reporting that one soldier had been killed in the attack, an interior ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that two others had succumbed to their wounds.

In a separate incident, a Saudi soldier operating along the border with Yemen was killed when his vehicle overturned, the spokesman added.

He suggested that the “continuous” use of violence against Yemen does not end the crisis in the Middle East, but leads to its expansion and the spread of terrorism.

Since Saudi launched its operation against the Houthi militiamen and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to restore the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, more than 4,300 have died and it has created an urgent and widespread humanitarian crisis in the already impoverished country.

The worldwide Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, withdrew its 14 foreign staffers from Aden following an attack by masked gunmen who held employees at gunpoint and made off with cash, cars and equipment.

Saudi-backed militias loyal to Hadi have in recent weeks regained ground from the rebels in southern and central Yemen.