Two Saudi officers killed in Yemen attack

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Two Saudi officers have been killed and one was injured in what Saudi authorities described as a “lone wolf” attack on a military training mission in central Yemen.

The rare incident, nearly a decade into Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the war in Yemen, occurred late on Friday when a Yemeni soldier opened fire inside a training camp in the city of Seiyun, about 500km east of the capital Sana’a, according to a statement by the Saudi armed forces.

Saudi Arabia led a coalition of mainly Arab nations to launch a military operation in 2015 aimed at restoring Yemen’s internationally recognised government after Iran-backed Houthi rebels took over Sana’a in the previous year.

“This ‘lone wolf’ cowardly attack does not represent the honourable members of the Yemeni ministry of defence,” the Saudi military said in its statement on Saturday.

The camp in the Hadhramaut province was set up to provide training to Yemeni forces to counter terrorism, combat smuggling and support humanitarian relief efforts, the Saudi statement said.

It added that the coalition would work with Yemeni authorities to conduct an investigation into the attack and to apprehend the perpetrator and bring him to justice. The bodies of the deceased and the wounded officer have been repatriated to Saudi Arabia, it said.

The Houthis did not claim the attack, but a senior official from the group praised it on social media. The assault had been prompted by a “feeling of oppression” caused by the Saudi forces stationed in the area, said Hamed Rizq on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. He called the operation “heroic” and “an indication of a harsh future awaiting the invaders”.

The US and the UK launched air strikes targeting rebel-held Sana’a and other parts of the country over the weekend, according to US officials and Arab media.

More than 150,000 people have been killed in the war that caused what advocacy groups call one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Friday’s attack was a rare occurrence, since the country has enjoyed relative calm over the past two years amid ongoing peace talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, after a ceasefire expired in 2022.

The rebel group’s main focus over the past year has been to target western cargo ships crossing the Red Sea, in solidarity with the Palestinians after Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel.