Saudi soldier dies in Yemen border mine blast

Dunya News

Negotiations have failed to make headway but are scheduled to resume on Friday.

 

RIYADH (AFP) - A landmine has killed a Saudi Arabian soldier patrolling the southern border with Yemen, the interior ministry says.

The blast struck a Border Guard patrol at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) Tuesday morning in the kingdom’s Jazan region, the ministry said in a statement late Tuesday.

About 100 Saudi soldiers and civilians have died from shelling, skirmishes and mines in the border region since a Saudi-led coalition in March last year began a military intervention in Yemen.

The Arab coalition intervened with air strikes and other support for Yemen’s President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels overran much of the country.

Fighting has continued in Yemen despite a formal ceasefire in conjunction with United Nations-brokered peace talks between rebels and the government that began in Kuwait in April.

Negotiations have failed to make headway but are scheduled to resume on Friday.

More than 6,400 Yemenis, most of them civilians, have been killed since early last year.