In Yemen, two Saudi soldiers killed and one injured in an attack

Two Saudi soldiers, an officer and a non-commissioned officer, were killed Friday in an attack in central Yemen carried out by an assailant “affiliate” to the Yemeni Ministry of Defense, the official Saudi press agency SPA reported on Saturday (November 9). “An officer and a non-commissioned officer were killed and another officer injured in a cowardly and treacherous attack” inside a military camp in the town of Sayoun, SPA said, citing Saudi Defense Ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Turki Al-Malki.

Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition mobilized in 2015 to support the Yemeni government against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and have since controlled large swaths of the territory. The town of Sayoun is located in the province of Hadramout, controlled by the government recognized by the international community. Coalition forces stationed at the camp where the attack took place were helping train Yemeni forces to combat terrorism and smuggling, according to SPA.

The attacker “does not represent the honorable members of the Yemeni Ministry of Defense, who appreciate the positive and important role played by the coalition forces in supporting the government”added SPA without giving details on the modus operandi of the attack, which took place during a “sports training”. A Yemeni officer told Agence France-Presse that the incident began with a verbal altercation between the Yemeni perpetrator and the Saudis, which escalated into an exchange of gunfire.

The bodies of the deceased and the injured officer were transported to Saudi Arabia, according to the same source, which specifies that an investigation will be carried out in coordination with the Yemeni Ministry of Defense to establish “the reasons and motives for the attack and arrest the assailant to bring him before justice”.

According to the UN, the war in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more, with more than three-quarters of the population dependent on dwindling international aid. NGOs and UN experts have accused all parties of having committed war crimes in this country, the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula.