Coalition ‘did not hit’ Oman envoy’s home

JEDDAH: Two Border Guard personnel were killed in shelling from Yemen on Sunday. The soldiers were patrolling the Najran border.

Maj.-Gen. Mansour Al-Turki of the Interior Ministry said that one of the patrol teams came under intense fire around 6:30 a.m. Saudi guards responded to it and in the ensuing clash Hussein Mehdi Al-Harith and Ali Ibrahim Al-Khaldi were martyred.
Separately in Samta, Jazan, one Indian expat was killed in Houthi shelling. Ten others were injured.
Meanwhile, two Saudis are among six foreigners released by Iran-backed Houthis on Sunday. Three of them have flown out of Sanaa, airport officials said.
The hostages, who were detained earlier this year, include three Americans and a Briton.
A Houthi source said the Briton had been studying at a religious school in Yemen.
The source said the three accompanied a Houthi delegation on an Omani flight to Muscat, where they were due to meet UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, for talks.
On Saturday, Oman said it had summoned the Saudi ambassador to Muscat to file an official complaint over what it said was the targeting of the residence of its ambassador in Sanaa on Friday night.
The Saudi-led coalition spokesman has denied the accusation and suggested that the ambassador's residence may have been hit by mortars, fired by the Houthis, our sister publication Asharq Al-Awsat said. It quoted Brig.-Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri as saying the coalition would welcome an investigation.
“One would be able from the beginning to distinguish between a mortar strike and a plane strike,” he said. Coalition air raids have intensified in recent weeks as a Gulf Arab ground force and loyalists prepare a campaign to recapture Sanaa.

— With input from agencies