Yemeni retaliatory attacks leave 16 Saudi troops, mercs dead

Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have shot dead three Saudi troops in the kingdom’s southwestern province of Jizan and killed over a dozen mercenaries inside Yemen amid Riyadh’s relentless aerial aggression against its beleaguered southern neighbor.

According to a report by Yemen’s al-Masirah television, Yemeni snipers managed to gun down a Saudi soldier in al-Mazraq area and two others in Tabat al-Hamrah hill in Jizan on Friday.

The Yemeni forces also foiled infiltration attempts by Saudi mercenaries in three fronts near the city of Ta’izz, the capital of a southwestern province with the same name, killing at least 10 mercenaries and inflicting injuries on several others.

Elsewhere, in the northern province of Jawf, Yemeni forces killed three more Saudi mercenaries after launching an artillery attack against their gatherings in al-Ghayl district.

The Yemeni forces have been staging recurrent retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia, which has been waging a war on the country since March 2015. The Saudi aggression, which has killed more than 11,400 in Yemen, was launched in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Saudi ally who has resigned as Yemen’s president but seeks to forcefully return to power.

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