Two Saudi soldiers fighting with the Arab coalition in Yemen have been detained by Houthi rebels and three others are missing as Saudi airstrikes continue to pound targets across the war-torn country today.
The two Saudi soldiers were on the ground in Yemen and “are detainees and not hostages,” according to Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri of Saudi Arabia, the coalition spokesman.
Brig. Gen. Ahmad Asseri.
“They lost their way inside Yemeni territory.”
Meanwhile, coalition airstrikes continued to pound positions in Yemen yesterday, and a strike on a Houthi-held security compound in the north and a house in Sanaa killed 50 people, Reuters reports.
The strike on the security compound was a Houthi-controlled police headquarters, according to the Reuters report, and killed 30 people. 18 were killed on the strike in Sanaa.
Border guards in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, which is just north of the fighting in Yemen.
Yesterday and today’s strikes followed eight more attacks on Sunday, including a school in Sanaa that is connected to president Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing local security officials. The weekend’s strikes also included one that hit San’a’s Old City, a UNESCO-designated heritage site.
In a positive development for the coalition, two Americans, a British citizen and three Saudis that were held hostage for months by rebels in Yemen were freed on and flown to safety in neighboring Oman, which brokered the release of the men, according to the New York Times.
