Border Guards repel attack in Jazan, 3 soldiers martyred

JEDDAH: Three Saudi Border Guard soldiers died in fighting with "enemy elements" trying to cross the border from Yemen to attack two watch towers, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said on Monday.
An Interior Ministry spokesman was quoted by the SPA as saying said fighting erupted on Sunday evening when a Border Guard patrol at Al-Harath Sector in Jazan region intercepted the infiltrators, who were armed with machine guns and mortars.
In the ensuing gunbattle, the infiltration attempt was repelled but resulted in the martyrdom of Privates First Class Maree As'oos Ibrahim Darraj, Mohsen Mohammed Ahmed Mareedi and Osama Mohammed Ali Al-Amri, the spokesman said.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting Houthi forces in Yemen for eight months and has led a coalition of Arab states in a military campaign to drive the group from the capital Sanaa.
Several dozen soldiers from the kingdom have been killed in clashes along the country's long, rugged border with Yemen.
At least 5,700 Yemenis have been killed since March in a civil war that has pitted supporters of the exiled government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, against forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Houthi militia allied to Iran.