Four people were killed and three wounded in Saudi Arabia when a shell fired from inside Yemen exploded in a town close to the border, Saudi Civil Defense said on Monday.
The announcement followed news that seven Saudi soldiers and dozens of Houthi fighters were killed in heavy fighting on the border with Yemen on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen has seen an increase in violence as the two sides negotiate for a peaceful settlement.
The flare-up comes as the main combatants in Yemen’s war prepared for a further week of peace talks in Kuwait. According to a report in Reuters, talks “had been on the verge of collapse after a new row erupted last week between the Saudi-backed government and its Iranian-allied Houthi foes and renewed fighting broke out.”
The United Nations has estimated that more than 6,200 people have died in Yemen since the war began in March last year. Saudi Arabia has reported dozens of its soldiers or civilians have been killed in the conflict.
Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri, who is an advisor for the Saudi defense minister and spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab Coalition in Yemen, said that Saudi Arabia would “not accept any violations” after the violence that left 7 troops dead over the weekend, calling further border incursions a “red line.”
Last week, Saudi defense forces shot down a ballistic missile fired at the Kingdom from Yemen. On the same day, Saudi-led airstrikes hit hideouts of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, killing “many terrorists.” Two Saudi army pilots also died when their Apache helicopter crashed in the Yemeni region of Marib in what was reportedly bad weather.
