RIYADH — Three Saudi soldiers have been killed by artillery fire from Yemen, and another died when his patrol vehicle crashed along the border, authorities in Riyadh said on Tuesday. A Saudi border post in the Kingdom's southern region of Jazan came under shell and rocket fire from Yemeni territory on Monday. After initially reporting that one soldier had been killed in the attack, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that two others had succumbed to their wounds. In a separate incident, a Saudi soldier operating along the border with Yemen was killed when his vehicle overturned, the spokesman added. Maj. Gen. Abdulrahman Al-Shahrani, commander of the 18th brigade, died of hostile fire on Sunday in the same region. He is the highest ranking Saudi officer to die since March when Saudi Arabia, leading a US-backed coalition of mainly Arab countries, started air strikes against the Iran-supported Houthis. On Monday, rockets fired by Houthi militiamen killed 14 civilians, most of them children, in Yemen's third largest city, Taiz. Fighters loyal to Yemen's President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi have been contesting control of Taiz — known as Yemen's cultural capital — with the Houthis since April. “The situation is awful and the fighting is happening on many fronts. All the hospitals have closed except for one, so there's a shortage of medical care. Two rockets fell on the Deluxe neighborhood, killing 14 people, among them women and children,” Taiz resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. “Taiz is being devastated.” — Agencies
