Yemeni troops kill 4 Saudi regime forces

Yemen’s Army and its allied Popular Committees have killed as many as four Saudi troops in counterattacks against the kingdom’s ongoing deadly invasion of its impoverished southern neighbor.

Yemen’s al-Masirah television network said on Monday Yemeni snipers had gunned down a trooper in Saudi Arabia’s southeastern Asir region.

Also, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the allied Yemeni forces had killed two Saudi troops and one officer during a confrontation in the kingdom’s border area.

It did not offer further details, but claimed that the Armed Forces had quelled a large-scale attack by the Yemeni troops and vigilantes.

The SPA also revealed, for the first time, that the counteroffensives had so far killed 46 Saudi forces since March 2015, when the kingdom invaded Yemen to restore its former Riyadh-allied regime.

The invasion has so far cost the lives of more than 12,000 people.

The invasion has also sowed sweeping turmoil across the country, creating a breeding ground for Takfiri terror groups such as al-Qaeda.

On Monday, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) “is thriving in an environment of state collapse, growing sectarianism, shifting alliances, security vacuums, and a burgeoning war economy.”

The report found that the terrorists had gained control over Yemen’s vital financial centers.

It said the AQAP was known to have pilfered at least $60 million from Yemen’s Central Bank, and at one point earned about two million dollars per day through taxes in Mukalla, a port in southern Yemen, which the organization controlled until last year.

It also noted that from 2011 to 2013, the group had seized roughly $20 million per year in robberies, ransoms, and fuel taxes.