Two Saudi soldiers killed near Yemen border

Two Saudi soldiers were killed near the Kingdom’s border with Yemen, local media reported Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia's official SPA news agency said the soldiers were killed while on duty in the Najran region in the south of the country.

Neither the ranks of the soldiers nor details on the time and circumstances of their deaths were revealed.

A Najran official offered condolences to their families.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels target Saudi troops by infiltrating the border occasionally and launching missile attacks on the Saudi border cities of Najran and Jizan.

The total number of soldiers killed at the border in December has risen to nine.

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sana’a.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

Since then, tens of thousands of Yemenis, including numerous civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, while another 14 million are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.