Saudi soldier killed by Houthi fire on Yemen border

A Saudi soldier was killed Saturday by Houthi fire along border with war-torn Yemen, the kingdom’s interior ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki said a Saudi border post came under heavy fire from Houthi militants holed up in a mountainous area, according to the official SPA news agency.

He said a soldier had been killed in an exchange of fire with the attackers. The soldier was the third to have been killed by Houthi fire since last week.

The Houthis, for their part, said their snipers had shot dead a Saudi soldier in southern Saudi Arabia, according to the pro-Houthi al-Masira television.

Yemen has been wrecked by chaos since late 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

The conflict escalated in mid-2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a major air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s embattled Saudi-backed government.

Two rounds of UN-backed peace talks have failed to resolve the conflict, in which thousands of Yemenis are believed to have been killed and an estimated 2.5 million forced to flee their homes.