Yemen soldier kills two Saudi soldiers and wounds another

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A soldier from Yemen's government-in-exile opened fire on Saudi troops as they exercised in eastern Yemen, killing two of them and wounding another, in a rare insider attack during the kingdom's nearly decade-long war there. officials said Saturday.

The attack in the eastern province of Hadramawt represents a years-long ceasefire between Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia Yemen's Houthi rebels has largely held steady despite militants' continued attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor. While the Houthis did not claim credit for the attack, at least one Houthi official praised it as “the beginning and indication of a harsh future that lies ahead for the invaders.”

Meanwhile, US warplanes carried out new attacks on Houthi positions that lasted into the early hours of Sunday, the American military said. The strikes follow The militants probably shot down another American reconnaissance drone over the country.

The attack on Saudi troops occurred on Friday evening in Seiyun, a city about 500 kilometers east of Sanaa. While troops were training at a Saudi-run base there, the soldier opened fire, killing an officer and a non-commissioned officer, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said, citing a military statement.

“The Joint Forces Command underlines that this cowardly attack by the 'Lone Wolf' does not represent the honorable members of the Yemeni Ministry of Defense,” the statement continued. The dead and other wounded Saudi soldiers were returned to the kingdom, it said.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi, chairman of Yemen's Southern Transitional Council, identified the soldier who carried out the attack as a member of the First Military Region, based in Seiyun.

Police in the area released images of the soldier and said a reward of 30 million Yemeni riyals was being offered for information leading to the soldier's arrest. It's worth about $15,000 on the black market.

Authorities gave no motive for the attack. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the militant group's Yemeni branch, has long operated near Hadramawt. However, the group did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack. A recent United Nations expert report said the al-Qaeda group and the Houthis have begun “coordinating operations directly with each other.”

The Houthis also did not claim responsibility for the attack. However, Houthi official Hamid Rizq praised the attack in a message on social platform

“The heroic operation is the beginning and an indication of a harsh future that lies ahead for the invaders,” Rizq wrote.

Yemen has been mired in a decades-long war since the Houthis invaded Sanaa from their northern strongholds in September 2014. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia entered the war in 2015 on behalf of the Yemeni government-in-exile. The war became further internationalized, with Iran providing the Houthis with weapons and support that cemented the conflict into a years-long stalemate.

The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including combatants and civilians, and caused one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. A ceasefire that expired in October 2022 has largely held since thenHowever, even if the Houthis have seized power the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

On Saturday evening, Houthi-run media reported US airstrikes on areas around Sanaa. The airstrikes continued into Sunday morning and also affected targets in Amran province, just outside the capital, the Houthis said. The rebels gave no immediate assessment of the damage caused by the attacks.

The U.S. military told the Associated Press later on Sunday that it had carried out airstrikes “on numerous Iran-backed Houthi weapons depots in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.” It described the sites as having advanced conventional weapons capable of attacking military and civilian vessels in the Red Sea corridor, but gave no other immediate details.

The US military has targeted radar stations, military bases and drone and missile launch sites since the ongoing airstrikes campaign against the Houthis began in January.

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Associated Press writer Baraa Anwer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia contributed to this report.