Five killed as Saudi coalition and Yemen forces exchange fire

Saudi’s civil defense said that two people, one Saudi and the other Yemeni, were killed and seven others wounded in a projectile attack on Jazan, a southern region of Saudi Arabia bordering Yemen.

“A military projectile fell on a commercial store on the main street, resulting in two deaths,” it announced in a statement.

Seven others were wounded, six Saudis and a Bangladeshi national, it added.

In Yemen, medics stated three people were killed and six others were injured in Saudi-led coalition air raids in Ajama, a town northwest of capital Sanaa.

“Three civilians including a child and a woman were killed, and six others were wounded,” medics told AFP.

Yemen’s Huthis regularly launch missiles and drones into neighbouring Saudi Arabia targeting its airports and oil infrastructure. But the latest incident marks the first time in months that Huthi attacks on Saudi have resulted in fatalities.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a war against the Arab world’s most impoverished nation in March 2015. The war has been seeking to restore power in Yemen to Riyadh’s favorite officials.

The death toll of the war, now in its seventh year, will reach an estimated 377,000 by the end of 2021, according to a recent report from the UN’s Development Programme.

The fighting has seen some 80 percent of the population, or 24 million people, relying on aid and assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need.